Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats
Young people and the European Union
- Young people are the future of the European Union and we believe in giving them a say in shaping that future
- The European Union actively invests in education and training for all young people and supports new technologies, Internet based-learning for example
- Work is going on in Parliament on a new Lifelong Learning programme to begin in 2007
The programme will bring together under one umbrella:
- Comenius: partnerships between schools, promoting for example teacher training;
- Erasmus: enhancing the European dimension of higher education through exchange and study abroad programmes;
- Grundtvig: encouraging lifelong learning;
- Erasmus Mundus: making Europe attractive to overseas students.
On top of this, there is also the very important Lingua programme advancing language skills and Leonardo, a programme enabling young trainees and apprentices to gain skills in another European country.
The aims of the new programme include:
For Comenius:
To involve at least one pupil in twenty in joint educational activities, for the period of the programme;
To involve at least one pupil in twenty in joint educational activities, for the period of the programme;
For Erasmus:
To contribute to the achievement by 2011 of three million individual participants in student mobility under the present programme and its predecessors;
To contribute to the achievement by 2011 of three million individual participants in student mobility under the present programme and its predecessors;
For Leonardo da Vinci:
To increase placements in enterprises to 150,000 per year by the end of the programme;
To increase placements in enterprises to 150,000 per year by the end of the programme;
For Grundtvig
To support the mobility of 25,000 individuals involved in adult education per year, by 2013
To support the mobility of 25,000 individuals involved in adult education per year, by 2013
The Socialist Group in the European Parliament is committed to making a success of the Lisbon Strategy - Europe's plan to promote sustainable growth and good quality jobs. We believe that this strategy should have education, training and lifelong learning at its very heart. One important area of this work is investing in good quality education and training for all young people and tackling youth unemployment.
The Socialist Group in the European Parliament supports the recent initiative taken by a group of Member State governments to develop a comprehensive 'Pact for Youth' - a wide-ranging policy for Europe's young people in all areas of the EU's activities. A proposal is due on this later in the year. We would urge those involved in drawing up the proposal to work closely with young people in putting the plans together so that the pact belongs to young people and is meaningful and useful. We look forward to working on this initative.
The MEP responsible for the European Parliament's opinion on the Youth in Action Programme for 2007 is a socialist, Lissy Groener from Germany. She is busy working hard to make sure that this is the best programme yet - the plans cover various activites such as volunteering and exchanges.
European Socialist also have an active youth organisation - ECOSY. You can find out more about ECOSY by logging on to www.ecosy.org
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