Education as the cornerstone of the Lisbon process

The European Parliament adopted the resolution based on the own-initiative report drafted by Guy BONO (PES, FR) on education as the cornerstone of the Lisbon process. (Please see the summary of 11/07/2005.) Parliament called on the Member States to implement the "Education & Training 2010" work programme with the involvement of all the relevant players. In order to achieve the Lisbon objectives, more emphasis needs to be placed on education. Parliament stated that Union should as a matter of urgency promote the convergence of the education systems of the Member States towards higher performance standards. The specific measures to be implemented at Community and national levels in the area of education must be focused primarily on target groups such as young people, job-seekers and those in search of training in order to be in step with a changing job market. Parliament called for the adoption of the necessary measures to reduce administrative obstacles in order to speed up mobility and mutual recognition of qualifications and ensure universal and non-discriminatory access to quality education. Furthermore, in order to make lifelong learning a reality available to all without discrimination, it was essential to put in place innovative models of work organisation and new forms of cost-sharing between businesses, workers and public authorities by making information and communication technologies (ICT) the top priority so as to allow training within a family context as well.

Parliament went on to record its approval of the appropriateness of the 29 indicators used by the Commission to assess the performance achieved by teaching systems in Europe and of the need to develop new indicators in the key areas where they are lacking (languages, ICT, teachers, return on investment, adult education, social inclusion and active citizenship). On this basis, Parliament called on the Member States to take suitable measures as a matter of priority to reduce the high number of young people leaving school prematurely without any kind of qualification since this trend is an obstacle to greater social cohesion in the Union. Member States must also take appropriate measures to reach the objectives fixed by the Council and ensure a 15% increase in the number of science graduates between now and 2010 while at the same time correcting the imbalance between men and women.

Finally, Parliament asked the Council and the Commission to provide an appropriate budgetary allocation in the next financial perspectives for all measures relating to lifelong education and training on which attainment of the objectives of the Lisbon Strategy will largely depend.