Community action programme 'Socrates'

This proposal for a European Parliament and Council decision concerned the establishment of the Community action programme "Socrates". This programme, established for a duration of five years from 1 January 1995 to 31 December 1999, aimed to contribute to the development of quality education and training and an open European area of cooperation on education. With a financial envelope of ECU 1 005.6 million over five years, "Socrates" had three objectives: - to promote cooperation in higher education: this mainly involved actions incorporating the activities of the old Erasmus programme: promoting the European dimension in universities, establishing networks of European universities and funding student mobility grants; - to promote cooperation in school education ("Europe at School"): this was the main new feature of the programme and provided for the establishment of partnerships between schools in different Member States for the joint implementation of education projects (pre-schools, primary and secondary schools), particularly in the field of languages, cultural heritage, protection of the environment or other topics of common interest. It would also involve promoting the creation of networks bringing together, according to their field of interest, the institutions involved in these partnerships, thus facilitating exchanges of information, and an improvement in or production of new teaching products. Finally, it would seek to promote education for the children of migrant workers and gypsies and to facilitate the updating of teachers' skills; - to implement horizontal actions at all levels of education: promoting language skills in the Community and open and distance learning. Actions were also planned to promote information and exchanges of experiences, particularly through the extension of the EURYDICE network (information on education in the Community programme) and through study visits for key players in education ("ARION" measures). �