On the 6th of November the third regional debate in the framework of the European Citizens Consultations (ECC) was held in Nice, France. The debate involved experts from Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus and Malta, to discuss the challenges and the different European perspectives of education.

After a welcome note by Diogo Pinto, Secretary General of the European Movement International and a general introduction of the project by Stefan Schäfers from the King Baudouin Foundation, the participants split up and gathered during the morning session in three different workshops. Conclusions of the workshops were presented by the chairman in the afternoon session and assessed together with all the participants.
 

The participants saw a close link between education and mobility and agreed that the EU has to offer the right to mobility and not only the opportunity. In a globalized world mobility can be seen as a basic need and a basic component of education.

Education in general has to be adapted to EU related matters in order to change the approach of the civil society and to simplify structures. Simplifying structures could mean to teach in a second language, preferably English or one needed in regions which have common borders with other countries. The connection between language and cultural background raised intense discussions about the fact that education is part of the national identities.

An agreement was reached on the fact that education has to prepare citizens for the work market, while ways of educating citizens can be very different. One of the workshops discussed the effectiveness of educational systems in terms of a more mechanical learning process versus a more practically oriented approach of education in order to prepare citizens best for the European market.
 

The main driving forces that push for closer cooperation in education on the European level are a knowledge based economy, mobility and European citizenship. Standardisation is not necessary for cooperation, scientific development and mobility to be achieved. The participants commented that it is not desirable even if it could be achieved.

Furthermore the participants voiced three main reasons to speak against standardisation. Firstly culture is produced and reproduced to a large extend through education. Therefore there should be diversity within the different educational systems. The citizens pleaded for the use of an open system of cooperation rather than to further implement a system of community law in the sector of European education. Secondly educational systems in each of the European countries have a history that needs to be maintained. Thirdly, educational systems gain from comparison and for a comparison to be, diversity is needed. Diversity leads to a healthy evolution of education, to progress and helps to develop creativity.

It was noted that cooperation should aim at harmonisation. The participants pointed out that harmonisation and compatibility are needed rather than standardisation.

In order to reach these goals mechanisms are needed to assure quality in education. It is necessary to implement a framework which makes each system and its qualifications comprehensible to each other. This would lead to increasing mutual confidence which makes mutual recognition possible.

Various experts intervened, contributing that the achievements of the European Union are already significant and a first great deal of progress has been made. There is for example a European qualifications framework in place that validates the national qualification frameworks. There also exists a European quality assurance agency which accredits national quality assurance agencies and also various kinds of benchmarks in the European Union which document achievements on national level that are reasonable and successful.

It was concluded that uniformity is unnecessary and not desirable in the sector of education. There are additional ways to maintain cohesion by implementing for example high European benchmarks.

Within a highly diverse European educational structure it will always be difficult to develop common standards and a common understanding of education. Nevertheless it should be possible within the given framework to teach a certain common pool of citizens’ rights and obligations in order to maintain and achieve a certain level of necessary European cohesion.   

The next regional debate will take place in Dublin, Ireland on the 20 of November 2009. The theme of the debate will be “Social Welfare” and the event will focus on questions such as:
 

•  The role that can be played by the European Union to achieve better protection of the most vulnerable and in fighting against poverty.
• The need for creating convergence among social insurance and welfare systems, in order to ensure a common EU social system.
• At a time when many people feel left out and cannot afford the bear minimum, what can the EU do?

For more information please visit:

www.european-citizens-consultations.eu