Row over funding for Socrates Socratefunds

Date: 19/06/1997

By Leyla Linton

EDUCATION ministers are unlikely to agree to European Commission calls for an extra 50 million ecu to be spent on Socrates, the EU education programme, when they meet next week.

Eight countries have voiced support for the Commission's request for top-up funds, but four others have not made their positions clear and little progress has been made on moving towards an agreement.

Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Luxembourg have declared their backing for the extra funding, but France, Germany, the UK, Austria and the Netherlands have not yet committed themselves. Finland is said to be in favour in principle, but Sweden has raised the issue of budgetary austerity.

The Dutch EU presidency is unlikely to push the issue when education ministers meet in Luxembourg next Thursday (26 June).

Education Commissioner Edith Cresson has called on member states to be generous, describing the programme as

“an outstanding success”. She points out that even with additional finance, it will only account for around 0.2&percent; of the Union budget next year and has warned EU governments against diluting project funding.

The Socrates programme, which began in 1995 and will run until 1999, already has a budget of 850 million ecu.

But a review by the Commission has shown that demand is greatly outstripping supply. Requests for grants totalled more than 700 million ecu last year, four times the 173 million ecu available. More than 1,600 higher education institutions have already applied for 250 million ecu worth of funding for the next academic year.

Socrates was set up to boost the mobility and language skills of the EU's 70 million school pupils, 11 million university students and 4 million teachers. It covers all levels of education from kindergarten to postgraduate stage and funds activities such as exchanges and training.