Training, education: establishment of a European Year of Lifelong Learning, 1996

The committee unanimously adopted the report on the proposal for a decision by the European Parliament and the Council establishing a "European year of lifelong learning (1996)", highlighting the need for real complementarity between projects planned under this decision and the new programmes for young people (SOCRATES, Youth for Europe, LEONARDO) recently adopted by the European Parliament and the Council. Based on the strategic vision in the White Paper on growth, competitiveness and employment, the Commission proposal for a "European year of lifelong learning" was presented to the European Parliament and the Council in October 1994 as part of the initiative to devote specific Union projects each year to the most important challenges facing European society, the objective being to draw citizens' attention to the need to face up to current changes in the world of work and education. Adopting its amendments to the proposal for a decision, the committee, which endorsed the Commission's ideas, focused on the need to guarantee complementarity between the projects planned as part of the European Year of Lifelong Learning and the programmes recently adopted for young people on the importance of learning foreign languages, the need for specific initiatives which amount to more than just publicity campaigns and the importance of equal opportunities for men and women.�