Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2011)788 - "Erasmus for all" The Union Programme for Education, Training, Youth and Sport - Main contents
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| dossier | COM(2011)788 - "Erasmus for all" The Union Programme for Education, Training, Youth and Sport. |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2011)788  |
| date | 23-11-2011 |
In June 2010 the European Council endorsed Europe 2020, the reform agenda aiming to help Europe to recover from the crisis and come out stronger through a coordinated, comprehensive strategy for a smart, inclusive and sustainable growth.
Education and training are at the core of Europe 2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, and of the Integrated guidelines for the economic and employment policies of the Member States. Arguably none of the Europe 2020 objectives and headline targets will be reached without a strong investment in human capital. Five of the Europe 2020 flagships depend on the modernization of education and training: Youth on the Move, Agenda for New Skills and Jobs, as well as the Digital Agenda, Innovation Union and the Platform Against Poverty.
In its Communication 'A Budget for Europe', the Commission points out that there is scope to increase Union support to education and training in order to raise citizens' skills and help tackle the high levels of youth unemployment in many Member States. The Commission also stresses that in its external actions, it will concentrate on promoting and defending Union values abroad, promote assistance to transitional and democratic processes and project the external dimension of internal policies.
Contents
Wide-scale public and stakeholder consultations took place from early 2010 to mid-2011 in education, training, youth and sport fields.
As regards education, training and youth, a strong convergence of viewpoints could be noticed among the different groups of stakeholders consulted and the common elements of the contributions can be summarised as follows:
· A very positive assessment of the results achieved by the Lifelong Learning, Youth in Action and Erasmus Mundus programmes;
· The need to develop a more integrated approach, being between education sectors, with other youth-related programmes and between the various existing Union higher education programmes, whether they are intra-European (Erasmus), worldwide (Erasmus Mundus), regional (Tempus, Alfa, Edulink) or bilateral (with the US and Canada for instance);
· The need to establish stronger links between policy developments and the programme's supported activities;
· The importance of continuing to focus on quality, especially in higher education in the Union and beyond;
· The importance of maintaining Union instruments to support both formal and non-formal learning for young people, and the need to improve the recognition of learning outcomes;
· A need for administrative simplification and for streamlining of actions and priorities;
· A need to improve the visibility of the Programme.
As regards sport, the main points stressed by the stakeholders can be summarised as follows:
· Insufficient availability of sport and physical activity at all levels of education;
· Insufficient recognition of voluntary activity in sport;
· Doping as a major threat to fairness in sporting competitions;
· Lack of attention for the societal value of sport as compared to its commercial aspects;
· Commercial pressure endangering the original spirit of sport based on fair play.
Four impact assessments examined the operation of three existing programmes in education, training and youth field (namely Lifelong Learning Programme, Youth in Action and Erasmus Mundus) and, in the case of sport, preparatory actions voted by the Budgetary Authority.
Given the similarity of objectives, legal base and Union competencies in these fields, each impact assessment considers similar options: discontinuing the existing actions or programmes; continuing them in their current form; substantially strengthening their policy focus; and bringing together the Lifelong Learning, Youth in Action and Erasmus Mundus programmes into a single, streamlined Programme.
The preferred option identified in each of the four Impact Assessments is the merger into a single programme, which is in line with the Communication of the Commission on the Multiannual Financial Framework adopted on 29 June 2011. This option would be the most coherent and cost-effective, for the main following reasons:
– It responds to the need for increased Union investment in Education and Training in these times of financial and economic crises, as a growing economy depends on the supply of highly skilled workers and on the mobilisation of the skills and competences of the unemployed;
– It focuses on and develops those actions identified in the current programmes as having the highest European added value and the strongest multiplier effects, leading to tangible impact on European education and training systems and thus considerably improved returns on investment;
– The concentration of efforts within the new streamlined programme architecture will allow for greater synergies among existing programmes and across different educational sectors, thus bolstering the lifelong learning approach to education, increasing coherence and improving access to potential beneficiaries through a streamlined set of key transversal actions;
– Beyond cooperation between education institutions themselves, it puts a stronger focus on the crucial role of education and human capital for innovation by promoting education-business partnerships, targeting excellence in teaching and learning, employability and entrepreneurship;
– Finally, it entails a rationalisation and simplification of delivery and management procedures, offering considerable potential for reducing implementation costs as compared to the sum of the implementation costs of the current programmes (i.e. Lifelong Learning, Youth in Action and the cooperation programmes in Higher Education with third countries).
Within the context of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), one of the priority of this Programme is to emphasise streamlining, simplification and a performance-based allocation of funds. This approach is applied in the Programme 'Erasmus for All' by basing it on the rules of the Financial Regulation.
The Programme will reduce the number of activities supported. It will use more flat rate grants to increase efficiency; successful examples such as the lump sum grants for Erasmus student mobility will be widely used for mobility actions. National Agencies will no longer manage individual mobility and thereby reducing the administrative workload.
The National Agencies will become the main entry point for learning mobility activities, open to young people whether they participate as student, trainee or volunteer. The user-friendliness will also be enhanced for participating higher education institutions at international level, by the integration of disparate international cooperation programmes.
"Erasmus for All", the Single Programme in the field of Education, Training, Youth and Sport is justified on the grounds of the objectives laid down in Articles 165 and 166 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and on the subsidiarity principle.
Article 165 of TFEU calls for an action by the European Union in order to 'contribute to the development of quality education by encouraging cooperation between Member States and, if necessary, by supporting and supplementing their action, while fully respecting the responsibility of the Member States for the content of teaching and the organisation of education systems and their cultural and linguistic diversity.'
Article 166 states that the "Union shall implement a vocational training policy which shall support and supplement the action of the Member States, while fully respecting the responsibility of the Member States for the content and organisation of vocational training.
Both articles state that the Union and the Member States shall foster cooperation with third countries and the competent international organisations respectively in the sphere of education and sport (Article 165 (3)) and vocational training (Article 166 (3)).
As stressed in the interim evaluations of the Lifelong Learning, Youth in Action and Erasmus Mundus programmes, the European added value of the programme is derived from the innovative and transnational character of the activities undertaken and of the products and partnerships it helps to develop across Europe. Encouraging successful cooperation between Member States’ education and training systems as well as in the youth and sport fields would help to identify and implement policies and practices that work and encourage learning from each other.
While adopting implementing measures, in particular that referring to the allocation of funds, the Regulation foresees the application of the examination procedure according to provisions set out in Article 5 of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011. Selection decisions will still be sent to European Parliament and Committee for information.
The Regulation also introduces the delegating powers based on Article 290 of the TFEU. The use of this new legal instrument is limited to the amendment of the provisions relating to the performance criteria and on the actions managed by the National Agencies.
Experience of past programmes indicates that the provisions in Articles 13 i and 22 relating respectively to the performance criteria and the provisions on the actions managed by the National Agencies might need to be revised during the duration of the programme. The lack of flexibility of the Lifelong Learning, Youth in Action and Erasmus Mundus programmes and the lack of tools to adapt the programme to the changing needs of our society have been criticised by the main stakeholders of the fields concerned.
The opinion of Member States is taken into due account through the systematic consultation of experts. The consultation will be extended to experts appointed by the European Parliament as to ensure a large level of representativeness. The Commission will also consult, whether appropriate, relevant stakeholders in the fields concerned.
The Commission's proposal for a Multi-Annual Financial Framework for the period 2014-2020 foresees EUR 17 299 000 000 (current prices)for a Single programme on Education, Training, Youth and Sport and an additional amount coming from heading 4 instruments, corresponding to EUR 1 812 100 000 (current prices).
In order to ensure that the funding levels allocated to the main categories of stakeholders and beneficiaries will not be reduced below the levels guaranteed by the Lifelong Learning, Youth in Action and Erasmus Mundus programmes for the 2007-2013 period, the implementation of the Programme shall not result in an allocation to main education sectors less than:
– Higher education: 25%
– Vocational education and training and adult learning: 17%, of which adult learning: 2%
– School education: 7%
– Youth: 7%
The Regulation sets out the provisions for a new single programme covering Education, Training, Youth and Sport, called 'Erasmus for all'. Building on the broad recognition of the Erasmus sectoral programme, the programme aims at supporting all education sectors (namely Higher education, Vocational education and training and adult learning, schools education and Youth), in a lifelong learning perspective.
The 'Erasmus for all' programme focuses on three types of key actions, namely the transnational and international learning mobility of students, young people, teachers and staff; the cooperation for innovation and good practices between education institutions, as well as through cooperation with bodies active in the youth field and the support to the policy agendas, as well as the support to capacity building in third countries, including enlargement countries, with a particular focus on neighbouring countries and the international policy dialogue.
In line with the Communication on a Budget for Europe 2020, Erasmus for all will integrate existing international programmes (Erasmus Mundus, Tempus, Edulink and Alfa) and cooperation programmes with industrialised countries. To this end, the budget of the Programme will be complemented by financial allocations coming from the different external cooperation instruments. Funds will be made available on the basis of two multi-annual allocations covering 4 and 3 years respectively to ensure stability and predictability. These allocations should reflect the EU external action priorities, including development objectives as appropriate. They can be adjusted in case of major unforeseen circumstances or important political changes to reflect major shifts in policy priorities.
Excellence in teaching and research in European studies is covered through a specific article on 'Jean Monnet'. A chapter is dedicated to sport focusing on the fight against doping, violence and racism and fostering transnational activities to promote good governance of sport organisations.
A new financial instrument – a loan guarantee facility - is introduced to enable students to take their Masters degree in another European country. Finance for such studies is currently difficult to obtain because national grants and loans are frequently not portable across national boundaries, or are not available for studies at Masters level, and loans from private banks are prohibitively expensive. To overcome these problems, the EU will provide a partial guarantee to financial institutions (banks or student loan agencies) which agree to offer loans for Masters' studies in other participating countries on favourable terms for the students.
In management terms, the programme will be managed in accordance with the principle of the indirect management. Responsibilities will be shared between Members States and the Commission. National Agencies will be in charge of the main part of the funds, most of those allocated to mobility actions and cooperation. The Commission will delegate to an Executive Agency the management of larger cooperation projects, policy support, the Eurydice network, as well as Jean Monnet activities and Sport. The Commission may therefore use, on the basis of a cost-benefit analysis, the existing executive agency for the implementation of 'Erasmus for All' programme for the period 2014-2020, as provided for in Council Regulation (EC) No 58/2003 of 19 December 2002 laying down the statute for the Executive Agencies to be entrusted with certain tasks in the management of Community programmes.