A newly planned European support programme for education, youth and sports is designed to enable up to 5 million people - almost twice as many as at present - to spend part of their education abroad. The German Federal Minister of Education, Annette Schavan, welcomes the EU Education Council's agreed position on the future EU support programme for the period 2014-2020.
In the Education Council, Germany has successfully lobbied for including in the joint position the tailored addressing of the various target groups. This central success factor threatened to be excluded from the future design of the EU programme, for the EU Commission had suggested to issue as of 2014 a comprehensive support programme titled "Erasmus for All", which was to unite all other programmes existing to this point.
"Mobility in Europe significantly contributes towards the merging of the European societies. For instance, the Erasmus programme in its hitherto existing form enabled about 2.5 million students - 400,000 of which came from Germany – to spend a period of study abroad. The programme thus contributes not only to the personal development of citizens in Europe. We build bridges between our educational systems", said Schavan. "We cannot measure all fields of education and the youth policy measures with the same yardstick. Time spent abroad within the context of a vocational training contract is fundamentally different from a semester abroad during a study course or from a youth policy initiative. The European support programme has to reflect these differences."
Joint German-French initiative
For this reason, Germany and France jointly advocated the individual treatment of the various target groups. With their efforts, they have managed to safeguard also in future a decisive success factor of the current support programmes. This includes the comprehensive due consideration of the dual vocational training system that is of such significance in Germany.
"It was possible to communicate the special significance of exchange during vocational training and education and of the German system of vocational training on a European level", said Schavan. "In future, we aim at sending significantly more apprentices to other European countries and in return to welcome more European apprentices from abroad to spend time in our country."
In order to avoid competition amongst the individual target groups as regards funds, Germany successfully pressed for each target group being allocated a certain minimum budget. In addition, vocational training and education will be strengthened also in cooperation with countries outside of Europe. The European Commission had previously suggested to limit this form of cooperation to the field of universities alone.
Ultimately, the German federal government has also been able to prevent Brussels from enforcing excessive guidelines for the programme's administration in the member countries. "From our experience we know best how to address our young people and how we can assist them in submitting their application and in their preparations."
With the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) and the Pedagogic Exchange Service (PAD), Germany commands a differentiated and user-friendly structure for implementation. These institutions are experts in their respective fields and only they can guarantee the required quality in implementing the new programme.
Finally, in reaction to a German-French initiative, the programme will also stress the fact that the communication of joint European values must be an overarching goal in addition to the imparting of knowledge and competences. "This was an issue that was very dear to me indeed, particularly in view of the current situation, where we repeatedly experience the renewed strengthening of national egotisms", said Schavan.