26 June Education Council

Date: 03/07/1997

MINISTERS unanimously agreed an increase of 25 million ecu in the Socrates budget for 1998 and 1999, despite Education Commissioner Edith Cresson's call for

50 million ecu. The European Commission regarded this as the minimum amount necessary to fulfil the basic requirements of the programme in promoting the mobility of EU students and the European dimension in all sectors of education. Its interim report showed that bids for funding totalled 700 million ecu, while the money available only came to 173 million ecu. France and the UK supported the ministerial decision, but added a declaration calling on the Commission to make cost-efficiency a priority. The proposal will now go back to the European Parliament, which had been calling for an increase of 100 million ecu, for a second reading.

DURING a debate on the Commission's Green Paper on mobility in education, ministers agreed that the single market was imperfect and stressed the need to make progress on the mutual recognition of diplomas and to remove the remaining obstacles to the transferability of grants. The Dutch EU presidency reminded ministers that this was the 25th anniversary of the Council's first discussion on mobility and stressed that concrete measures were needed.

CRESSON presented to ministers the Commission's White Paper on teaching and learning, which sets out priorities including promoting the fight against social exclusion and the mastering of three EU languages.