MEP to investigate training agency

Date: 18/04/1996

By Rory Watson

THE leading institute established and financed by the Union to promote vocational training is to be investigated by the European Parliament following two highly-critical reports on its activities.

British Conservative MEP Edward Kellett-Bowman plans to visit Greece early next month to establish how the Thessaloniki-based European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) has reacted to the attacks.

Kellett-Bowman insists that the combination of a critical report by the Court of Auditors and a study by outside consultants into the role CEDEFOP could play in the EU's social policy “present a picture which gives rise to serious concerns”.

The consultants commissioned by the Parliament to report on the centre's activities pointed to a loss of direction in its work during the mid-1980s at a time when the Commission itself initiated a greater pan-European input into professional training.

They questioned whether CEDEFOP contributed anything useful to EU policy in this area and suggested that its closure might be the most appropriate option for the immediate future.

“On top of its practical difficulties, CEDEFOP stands indicted of poor management (certainly in the past), poor quality work and perhaps irrelevance,” Kellett-Bowman informed fellow MEPs this week.

The criticism of CEDEFOP's performance coincided with a highly-disruptive move during 1994 from its previous headquarters in Berlin to new premises in Greece. The transfer was forced on the centre as part of the carve-up of external EU agencies agreed by Union leaders at the end of 1993.

With the new European Central Bank set to be located in Frankfurt, Germany was happy to see CEDEFOP transferred to Thessaloniki last September to ensure Greece could host at least one EU agency.

But while 35 of the centre's staff moved to Greece, 17 remained in Berlin in the hope of early retirement, 14 resigned from the institute and a further 11 went either to the Commission or to other EU agencies.

According to an initial report drawn up by Kellett-Bowman for consideration by MEPs this week, this diaspora “can hardly be a factor in favour of efficient and effective management”.

He accepts the practical and psychological “distraction” which the move meant for staff and points to the departure, at the same time, of both its director and deputy-director as mitigating circumstances behind the centre's poor record.

But he warns that the combination of factors presents a clear risk that annual EU expenditure of some 15 million ecu to CEDEFOP is being undermined.

The agency was established with a view to being a centre of excellence for vocational training which would bring together people involved in the day-to-day operations of the profession. But it has already attracted criticism from the business community.

“It provides an ideal opportunity to exchange ideas, but it should clarify its role and respond to practical needs. It must test the market and make its activities more relevant,” said one business source.