Next period in transatlantic co-operation on education accepted by Commission
The Commission has adopted the Council's proposals concerning co-operation agreements between the Community, the USA and Canada in the field of education and training for the period 2001 to 2005, but expressed disappointment that a larger budget was not made available. The programmes provide support for, amongst activities, research internships at university, industry or government laboratories for graduate or undergraduate students in science and engineering. They encourage the creation of 'joint consortia' between higher education and vocational training establishments on both sides of the Atlantic. Each consortium must include at least three partners on each side. Consortia develop and implement projects in the following fields: student mobility preparation, student and teacher exchanges, joint teaching modules, use of new technologies in education and training, and long distance learning. Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Education and Culture has expressed regret at the lack of budgetary resources available on the European side for strengthening this co-operation. The budgets of 8.6 and 3.65 million euro respectively for the EU/USA and EU/Canada programmes are well below what is needed in order to give a new impetus to transatlantic co-operation in education and training. The Commission had estimated that the budgets for the period 2001 to 2005 needed to be 14 million euro for co-operation with the USA and 10 million euro for co-operation with Canada. Moreover, the USA and Canada were prepared to allocate budgets of that magnitude. The budgets for the 1995 to 2000 programmes were 7.4 million euro and 4.1 million euro for co-operation with the USA and Canada respectively. Mrs Reding is hoping that the budget allocation will be reviewed in the light of the pending discussion on the Community's overall co-operation strategy with non-member countries in the fields of education and training. The new agreements are due to be signed at the summits between the EU and the United States on 18 December in Washington, and between the EU and Canada on 19 December in Ottawa. They are due to be concluded definitively in February, after the European Parliament has given its opinion.