Higher education: co-operation with third countries, Erasmus Mundus programme 2004-2008

In its common position, the Council has approved the Commission's proposal in principle, while making certain amendments which it thought desirable, and which are in many cases similar or identical to the Parliament's opinion as well as the Commission's amended proposal. As regards the amendments made by the Council to the Commission's proposal, these concern the following issues : - the name of the programme : the Council has agreed that the programme should be designated "Erasmus Mundus": - the funding and review clause : the Council believes that a financial framework of EUR 180 million is sufficient to attain the objectives of the programme, while bearing in mind the need to exercise budgetary restraint. Furthermore, in view of the fact that the programme includes the first two years of the next financial perspectives, a review clause has been introduced also. - Implementation of the programme and cooperation with Member States : Paragraph 2 has been reworded so that point (a) now makes the link between the efficient running of the programme and the removal of legal and administrative barriers. A new paragraph 3 has been added concerning inter alia information and the dissemination of results of actions whose wording is based on Article 5 (3) of the Socrates programme. - Implementing measures : the Council considers that the results of selections under Action I should be subject to the management procedure, and has adapted paragraphs 1 (b) and 2 accordingly. - Linguistic aspects : the Council has sought to recall both the importance of the linguistic diversity of the Union and the desirability for third country students to have the use of at least two EU languages. Selection Procedures : in the interests of greater clarity and consistency, a specific section on selection procedures as applied to Actions 1 - 4 has been added to the Annex. - Erasmus Mundus Masters Courses : the wording of the introductory paragraph now makes it clear that these courses are selected, but not managed at E.U. level. They have been designated Erasmus Mundus Masters Courses in line with the programme's name. - Scholarships : Greater concision has been brought to this Action without loss of content. The Council considers moreover that certain considerations should be dealt with elsewhere, as for instance the question of braindrain (Recital 12), or the balance across fields of study (Selection Procedures) Reference to equal opportunities is already made in Article 3. - Enhancing attractiveness : the Council has simplified the structure of this Action without any essential loss of content. - Other questions : the Council has also introduced other additions, modifications or clarifications to the text, concerning inter alia: - References to the Stockholm and Barcelona European Councils; - Principles of management of the Community action; - Dialogue and understanding between cultures; - Subsidiarity; - Objectives of the Programme; - Consistency and complementarity. The Council did not accept the following Parliament amendments for the reasons stated: - Information on the programme : the Council considers thatquestions relating to information are sufficiently covered by para 3 of this article, and that it is not therefore necessary to specify an information role for the structures designated by the Member States; - Partnerships with undertakings : The Council has not accepted this amendment introducing the involvement of the business world, which is not provided for elsewhere in the programme. - Establishment of an Internet gateway : the references in this section are to the original proposal. The Council has decided that examples of eligible activities (former Actions 4.1 and 4.2) do not need to be specified, with the exception of a few general references in 4.2, since these are considered indicative and could be dealt with by the programme committee.�