Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-09-25-Speech-4-207"
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"en.20080925.22.4-207"2
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"Madam President, I thank the honourable Members for these questions and for this opportunity to discuss these issues in the European Parliament again.
The Commission would like to thank the Disability Intergroup of the European Parliament for taking the initiative to set aside a reserve of EUR 200 000 for a pilot project for a SEN resource centre. This initiative gives the European School system the opportunity to better fulfil the needs of SEN children.
The Board of Governors of the European Schools approved in July 2008 the proposal to use the European Parliament reserve of EUR 200 000 to make an evaluation of the existing SEN policy in the European Schools. This study will allow the European Schools to improve the quality of integration of SEN pupils.
The European Commission launched in July 2008 the financial procedure for the liberation of the European Parliament reserve of EUR 200 000. The transfer to the budgetary authorities is currently being initiated.
Progress has been achieved, but it is crucial that the European Parliament supports the reform process initiated by the Commission in order to finalise this reform and put it fully into practice as soon as possible. Again, the crucial role must be played by Member States. I would like to underline that we have good contacts with the Member States.
I hope that the Swedish presidency – which is not the presidency of the European Union but the presidency in the European Schools Board – will develop these initiatives. I would like to stress that the report drawn up by Mr Bösch, a Member of the European Parliament, has been very useful and he has been very instrumental in this issue.
I myself will do everything to develop the system of European Schools, because we are experiencing great difficulties with a system that was designed in 1953, and we must therefore implement some serious changes to make this system flexible and work well.
For the Commission, the reform of the European School system is a priority issue, and this is one of the most complicated items we are dealing with. The Commission has always strongly promoted the wider opening of the European School system, and progress has been achieved. Political agreement on this issue was marked at the ministerial meeting of November 2006, under the Dutch presidency of governors of European schools.
Following formal approval by the Board of Governors in April 2008 of the concrete modalities to achieve this goal, any accredited school in the Member States can now teach the European curriculum and deliver the European Baccalaureate. It is up to the relevant authorities of the Member States to take initiatives to concretise this opening of the European School System in their national schools.
The opening of the European School System is in line with the European Parliament’s wish to ensure that this would be possible both in places where an EU decentralised agency is located (so-called ‘type-II schools’), and in locations without a direct EU presence (so-called ‘type-III schools’).
After almost 50 years of existence, the European Baccalaureate has indeed acquired a high intrinsic value. The Commission wants to maintain the high quality of this diploma.
The Board of Governors of the European Schools approved in April 2008 a revision of the European Baccalaureate Agreement. Accredited schools can now deliver the European Baccalaureate.
In 2007, Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education initiated a study to analyse the academic and professional careers of former pupils of the European Schools, as the honourable Member just mentioned. This study will show the specific benefits and possible difficulties experienced by former pupils of the European Schools.
The Secretary-General of the European Schools has also launched a study to make an external evaluation of the European Baccalaureate. I trust that the combined results of both studies will provide key elements to assess how to further improve the European School System in order to best adjust it to the changing needs of its pupils.
Finally, I can inform you that the European School System has considerably increased its efforts to integrate children with special educational needs (SEN). In the school year 2004/2005, the European Schools had 274 pupils with special educational needs. In the last school year, there were 411 such pupils enrolled in the European Schools. The SEN budget allocated for 2008 is EUR 3 123 000; in 2004, the SEN budget spent was a little over EUR 2 million."@en1
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