Committee on Culture and Education Ordinary meeting ICM
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CULT European Parliament
Follow its sittingsHélder Sousa Silva
A nossa posição é clara: o reembolso do instrumento de recuperação não deve nunca ser feito à custa das prioridades futuras da Europa. Ao manter estes reembolsos fora da estrutura central do QFP, o Parlamento criou uma margem orçamental adicional equivalente a 0,11% do rendimento nacional bruto da União Europeia, disponibilizando recursos adicionais para as prioridades da União Europeia e, principalmente, para as prioridades da área da cultura e educação, juventude, desporto e média. Na Comissão de Orçamentos, Comissão BUDG, a abordagem acordada consistiu em utilizar esta margem para apoiar um aumento geral de cerca de 10% na maioria dos programas, em comparação com as propostas da Comissão. Contudo, foi igualmente reconhecido que, em casos excecionais, quando determinados programas são considerados particularmente relevantes e importantes para o futuro da União e quando a procura excede sistematicamente os recursos disponíveis, o Parlamento deveria apoiar, aumentar este referencial geral dos 10%. E foi precisamente o caso do Erasmus+, que passará a integrar, como sabem, o Corpo Europeu de Solidariedade, mas também do AgoraEU, resultante da fusão dos atuais programas Europa Criativa e CERV.
Estes são os programas mais importantes da nossa comissão, Comissão CULT. O primeiro investe nas pessoas através da educação, da mobilidade e, essencialmente, da oportunidade para os jovens. O segundo apoia a cultura, os média, a cidadania e a democracia. Ambos foram reconhecidos pelo Parlamento Europeu não apenas como investimentos estratégicos para o futuro da Europa, mas também como programas que demonstraram repetidamente o seu sucesso. Ano após ano, a procura por estas oportunidades ultrapassou os recursos disponíveis.
Naturalmente, muitos de nós teríamos preferido números ainda mais ambiciosos, mas num contexto de negociações orçamentais altamente competitivas, o facto de o Parlamento ter decidido ir além da abordagem geral no caso do Erasmus+ e do AgoraEU envia um sinal claro, político e muito forte para a comunidade em geral. Demonstra que a cultura, a educação, a juventude, o desporto e os média estão finalmente a ser reconhecidos como prioridades centrais da nossa União Europeia e não apenas como áreas políticas secundárias, como muitas vezes têm sido maltratados. E foi esta convicção que orientou o meu trabalho, o nosso trabalho, enquanto relator do parecer da CULT sobre o próximo quadro financeiro plurianual. Mas para compreender o que precisa de mudar, procurei primeiro compreender como estes setores são atualmente financiados. Neste momento, o financiamento das áreas sob responsabilidade da CULT encontra-se altamente fragmentado por vários programas, incluindo Erasmus+, o Corpo Europeu de Solidariedade, Europa Criativa, o CERV, o FEDER, Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional, Fundo Social Europeu, Horizonte Europa e o Mecanismo de Recuperação e Resiliência.
São alguns exemplos. Apesar disso, os programas exclusivamente dedicados à área da CULT representam atualmente menos de 2% do orçamento total do quadro financeiro plurianual atual 2021-2027.
A maior parte dos contributos provém de programas com um âmbito mais alargado, como é o caso da política de coesão. E esta fragmentação dificulta uma visão global do investimento e aumenta a complexidade administrativa para os beneficiários. Por essa razão, compreendo e apoio o objetivo de simplificar o orçamento da União Europeia, tornando-o mais acessível, mas essencialmente mais fácil de utilizar. Mas a simplificação deve andar de mãos dadas com o financiamento adequado. A proposta inicial da Comissão para o novo quadro financeiro ascende no valor global a 1,98 triliões de euros, prevendo, particularmente para o caso dos nossos dois programas, um aumento de 75% para o Ágora EU e 30% para o Erasmus Plus.
No entanto, o impacto real destes aumentos é, eu diria, consideravelmente atenuado pela inflação acumulada de 28% entre 2018 e 2025, bem como pela introdução de novos objetivos e novas ações nestes programas. Começando pelo Erasmus Plus, o programa emblemático da União Europeia. Para milhões de europeus, é através do Erasmus Plus que a Europa se torna uma realidade concreta. É um programa que molda a forma como os cidadãos veem a União Europeia e como escolhem participar nela. Cria claramente oportunidades para estudar, receber formação, fazer voluntariado e cooperar além-fronteiras.
Desenvolve competências, confiança e ligações que perduram ao longo da vida. O orçamento atual do Erasmus Plus para 2021-2027, o atual quadro financeiro, é de 26 mil milhões de euros. O orçamento do Corpo Europeu de Solidariedade, também neste quadro financeiro, é de cerca de 1,4 mil milhões de euros, o que dá um total combinado de 27,6 milhões de euros. Relembro que a proposta da Comissão foi de 36 e a posição adotada pelo Parlamento foi de 42 mil milhões de euros. Eu diria mais 52% quando comparado com o conjunto atual do quadro financeiro que estamos ainda a terminar.
Ainda não é o nível de financiamento que gostaríamos de alcançar, mas foi um dos poucos programas para os quais foi proposto um aumento superior a 10% em comparação com a proposta inicial da Comissão Europeia. É claramente uma boa razão para isso, que se torna evidente quando analisamos o aumento das responsabilidades que se esperam que o programa venha a assumir, tais como bolsas estratégicas em áreas prioritárias de competências, integração das ações de voluntariado, expansão da mobilidade na área do desporto e maior alinhamento com a iniciativa europeia União das Competências. É por isso que precisamos de reforçar as sinergias, e isto é muito importante, com o Fundo Europeu para a Competitividade, com o Horizonte Europa e com o Global Europe. Existem também preocupações semelhantes relativamente ao futuro programa Ágora EU. O orçamento atual da Europa Criativa são cerca de 2,44 mil milhões de euros.
O orçamento do CERV, Cidadãos, Igualdade, Direitos e Valores, é 1,5 mil milhões. Dá um total de 3,99 mil milhões. Agora a proposta da Comissão para o Ágora EU ascende a 7,6 mil milhões de euros. E a posição adotada pelo Parlamento foi de 9,5. Eu diria um aumento considerável e que nos anima bastante.
Também aqui não estamos onde gostaríamos de estar, mas tal como o Erasmus Plus, foi um dos poucos programas para os quais foi proposto um aumento superior a 10%, em comparação com a proposta da Comissão. A razão para a ambição da nossa proposta está igualmente relacionada com as mudanças previstas na estrutura e nas ambições do programa Agora EU. Particularmente na vertente cultura, passa a incluir novas prioridades: o impacto da inteligência artificial no setor da cultura, as condições precárias de trabalho dos artistas, a liberdade artística. Na área dos Media Plus, passará a apoiar o jornalismo independente, a sustentabilidade económica dos meios de comunicação social locais e regionais, a literacia mediática e o combate à desinformação. Por isso, tanto o Erasmus Plus como o Agora EU estão atualmente a ser discutidos no Parlamento Europeu, sendo possível que ainda venham a ser introduzidas algumas alterações.
Para terminar, direi que, enquanto membro não apenas da Comissão de Cultura e Educação, mas também da Comissão de Orçamentos, procurei abordar esta discussão com o sentido de realismo. Sei que os recursos são limitados, que a Europa enfrenta muitas prioridades concorrentes e sei que cada euro adicional tem de ser devidamente justificado. E por isso, direi que esta nossa posição é uma posição que envia um sinal forte para o exterior e espero que nas próximas etapas das negociações esta ideia seja também partilhada pelo Conselho e pelos Estados-Membros. As nossas prioridades não são definidas exclusivamente pelos nossos discursos, mas acima de tudo e também pelo nosso orçamento. Muito obrigado.
Nela Riehl
Ganz ganz herzlichen Dank für diesen für diese Einführung. Wir werden nun zur ersten Podiumsdiskussion über Kreatives Europa und Agora EU übergehen. Emma Rafowicz, Kult-Berichterstatterin für das Programm Kreatives Europa von 2021 bis 2021 bis 2027 und Co-Berichterstatterin für den Vorschlag Agora EU 2028 bis 2034, wird über die Umsetzung des Programms Kreatives Europa 2021 bis 2027 sprechen und anschließend werden sie gemeinsam mit Alice Kuhnke, Co-Berichterstatterin des LIBE-Ausschusses für den Vorschlag Agora EU 2028 bis 2034, ihren gemeinsamen Entwurf eines Berichtes über Agora EU vorstellen. Nach ihren Reden dann wird es eine erste Diskussionsrunde geben und danach werden Vertreterinnen und Vertreter der Kommission und des Rates ihre abschließenden Bemerkungen vortragen. Und damit ist Emma auch schon hier oben und you have the floor for five minutes.
Emma Rafowicz
Merci Madame la Présidente, vous avez réussi à à à parler assez longtemps pour qu'Alice et moi puissions venir à la tribune. Merci à toutes et à tous pour votre présence, chers membres des parlements nationaux, c'est un plaisir pour nous de pouvoir échanger avec vous, mais aussi évidemment de pouvoir partager nos intuitions et nos ambitions pour Agora et sans doute discuter avec vous. Aujourd'hui plus que jamais, nous avons besoin de vos commentaires, nous avons besoin de vos retours terrain sur ces programmes pour élaborer un texte qui sera encore plus ambitieux, ambitieux parce qu'il sera juste et adapté à nos réalités territoriales, à nos réalités régionales. Notre rapport, il doit pouvoir s'appuyer sur la diversité des écosystèmes nationaux dans tous les domaines couverts par Agora. C'est dans cet esprit par exemple qu'Alice et moi-même avons tenu à ce que les projets financés au titre du volet information et journalisme adoptent une perspective qui ne se limite pas à une dimension transnationale mais qui avant tout s'inscrive dans une optique nationale et locale véritablement de territoire.
J'attends avec impatience vos commentaires et vos points de vue et je vous remercie encore une fois pour votre présence. Peut-être pour petite précision avant de laisser parler Alice, nous sommes dans un début de travail parlementaire qui réunit deux commissions ici dans ce parlement, la commission culture et la commission LIBE. J'ai on va dire la charge plutôt du volet culturel, média, Europe créative mais également tout ce qui concerne on va dire l'information de manière partagée notamment à la suite des discussions autour de l'EMFA et Alice notamment s'est concentrée sur le volet CERV+ et nous avons en partage aussi évidemment des enjeux sur le sujet de l'information et de la lutte contre la désinformation. Mais je te laisse la main si tu veux peut-être rajouter quelque chose avant d'ouvrir la parole.
Alice Kuhnke
Yes, thank you Emma, thank you chair and dear colleagues and esteemed guests. It's a pleasure to see so many of you. I didn't know how many you would be and this is really, really great because as Emma said, we are so much looking forward to listening to you and we really want you to to have a discussion with us. I will be brief. As you know, the proposed Agora EU programme brings together the Creative Europe and the CERV programmes under the next MFF.
And this new programme is more than a funding instrument. It is a cornerstone for protecting and strengthening culture, democracy and fundamental rights. And bringing together the support for culture, the creative sectors and news media with support for stakeholders upholding the rule of law, equality and non-discrimination offers many opportunities. But also presents challenges: ensuring adequate funding for each objective, fostering synergies between different fields and strengthening flexibility, predictability and accountability. And Emma and I stand ready to take on these challenges by helping to build a financial instrument that is ambitious, fit for purpose and grounded in what has already been proven work.
And we have a lot of already proven work. Of course success will depend on fully taking into account national perspectives and experiences with the current programmes. I therefore very much welcome this exchange and look forward to hearing your insights and reflections which I am sure will be invaluable as we continue to work to ensure that Agora EU meets the needs and the challenges it is intended to address. Thank you so much. And I will also say I will there are so many Agora EU meetings going on at the same time so I will need to leave at 3 o'clock.
Nela Riehl
Thank you very much. Ich wechsle wieder ins Deutsche. Jeder, jeder Teilnehmende natürlich, die das Wort heute ergreifen möchte, dem wollen wir auch die Chance bieten, deswegen jetzt schon wieder die Bitte, halten Sie sich kurz, ungefähr zwei Minuten. Sie wurden in eine Rednerliste eingetragen. Natürlich steht es jedem, jeder aber möglich, sich noch einmal eintragen zu lassen, wenn man das Gefühl hat, ich bin jetzt nicht fertig geworden.
Und damit starten wir mit dem ersten Redner, Mr. Antmesto Santos, zwei Minuten bitte. Santonesh dos Santos.
Antmesto Santos
Muito boa tarde a todas e a todos, cumprimento as senhoras e os senhores deputados. Quero naturalmente começar por reconhecer a importância de projetos como o Europa Criativa, porque investir na cultura é sem dúvida sem dúvida construir sociedades com mais conhecimento e educação e por conseguinte sociedades mais tolerantes e democráticas. Mas é preciso garantir que estes projetos não estão só ao alcance de grandes entidades ou de grandes projetos culturais. Para isso é muito importante combater a burocracia, porque é preciso garantir que pequenas entidades, entidades de âmbito mais local, de âmbito mais associativo, podem aceder a este tipo de projetos para dessa forma também poderem beneficiar do contributo que a União pode dar a todos os Estados-Membros e a todos os projetos que realmente cumpram a missão deste tipo de iniciativa. E para isso é preciso trabalhar para que efetivamente a burocracia não seja um entrave para que estes projetos possam ao final do dia beneficiar todos, todos e todos.
Um dos maiores ativos da Europa é sem dúvida a sua história, a sua cultura e o seu património. Portugal contribui de forma significativa para isso. Portugal é um país com mais de oito séculos de história. Sendo um país com esta antiguidade, naturalmente tem muito património, património edificado, património histórico, cultural, e é necessário preservar e manter esse património. Daí ser necessário também mobilizar meios para que os Estados-Membros, neste caso Portugal, possam também investir na manutenção e na preservação desse património.
Como sabem, há pouco mais de quatro meses, Portugal foi atingido, a zona centro do país foi atingida por um conjunto vasto de tempestades que prejudicou, que criou danos imensos em várias infraestruturas, nomeadamente no património histórico e cultural. E também é importante mobilizarmos meios para que esse património possa ser protegido, possa ser salvaguardado e possa ser preservado, de forma a que dessa forma também honremos a nossa história e valorizemos aquilo que é um ativo de todos, não é um ativo só de Portugal, é um ativo da União, é um ativo da Europa. Porque sem dúvida que valorizar a riqueza cultural dos Estados-Membros é contribuir para a valorização de uma União mais forte, mais coesa, de uma União que honra o seu passado, que trabalha no seu presente, mas está sobretudo empenhada em construir um futuro mais próspero para todos os Estados-Membros e para todos os seus cidadãos. Muito obrigado.
Céline Calvez
Merci Madame la Présidente et je salue l'ensemble des membres des parlements, toujours une bonne initiative de nous réunir et d'autant plus quand on parle de culture. Alors on a bien noté que dans le contexte des finances publiques, on doit mentionner et saluer l'augmentation du budget consacré à la culture, mais on doit aussi en relativiser l'importance lorsque l'on compte l'inflation et le nouveau périmètre défini avec AgoraEU. Alors que l'intelligence artificielle transforme la création et la diffusion de notre culture, je m'étonne de ne pas forcément retrouver l'importance de ce qui doit être consacré à l'intelligence artificielle au sein des industries créatives et culturelles. Je ne reviendrai pas ici sur la question du droit d'auteur sur les données d'entraînement utilisées par les fournisseurs d'IA, mais plutôt sur le versant création et diffusion, comment on va aider toutes ces industries créatives et culturelles à s'emparer des outils d'IA pour la création mais aussi la diffusion. Ce qui pose la question de la diversité linguistique, aujourd'hui les outils d'IA n'intègrent pas assez nos contenus culturels, comment les y encourager et comment favoriser un meilleur partage de la valeur.
Comment AgoraEU va permettre de saisir toutes les opportunités que l'intelligence artificielle nous amène, ne pas considérer que cette IA est un danger même si elle représente des dangers par rapport à l'activité et la perte d'activité de nombreux d'artistes, créateurs. Mais aujourd'hui il me semble que dans AgoraEU on pourrait davantage pouvoir financer l'appropriation, l'utilisation des outils d'IA, c'est valable aussi bien pour le patrimoine que pour les arts visuels mais aussi les médias avec ce défi démocratique devant nous qui est celui de la désinformation augmentée par la prolifération des contenus créés par IA.
Je vous remercie.
Nikola Minchev
And Mr. Minchev from Bulgaria.
Thank you very much chair, dear colleagues. So democracy needs disagreement, debate, different opinions, even conflict sometimes. But the problem is when disagreement turns into complete distrust. We've all seen it on different topics, about elections, about climate, migration, about COVID. Suddenly people just stop listening.
Relationships are damaged, sometimes even broken. When this happens across society, opponents become enemies. Foreign interference and extremist narratives exploit these divisions. Trust weakens, civic space shrinks, and anger can turn into intimidation or violence. That's why we propose to Agora EU to make mutual understanding, civic trust and depolarization clearly visible in the program's objectives.
Not to create bureaucracy, but to support initiatives that rebuild relationships, such as civic participation, democratic education, shared culture, mediation, restorative justice. In the longer term, we need a coherent European strategy to address destructive polarization by connecting existing tools and filling the gaps. Because democracy depends not only on the institutions we build, but also on the trust we keep in each other. Thank you very much.
Saavedra
Gracias, señora presidenta. Quiero comenzar agradeciendo la organización de esta reunión interparlamentaria en un momento decisivo para el futuro del proyecto europeo, cuando la cultura debe ocupar un lugar central en la acción política. Una acción política que garantice el derecho de acceso a la cultura y haga de Europa el mejor espacio posible para la creación artística. Y en este sentido los programas europeos y su financiación no pueden ser políticas accesorias, sino instrumentos estratégicos para construir ciudadanía europea, reforzar la cohesión social y fortalecer nuestras democracias. Por ello, el Gobierno de España ha situado el acceso a la cultura como una prioridad pública, entendiendo la cultura como un derecho y no como un privilegio.
Europa Creativa ha demostrado que la cultura genera talento y empleo, pero también pensamiento crítico, respeto por la diversidad y convivencia. La financiación de todos estos programas en el marco financiero 2028-2034 debe ir encaminada a poner en práctica esta premisa. He escuchado con atención lo que se ha dicho y los nuevos desafíos...
Sorry to interrupt, could you speak a little bit slower, that would be nice for the interpreters. Thank you. Excuse me.
He escuchado con atención lo que se ha dicho sobre Europa Creativa y sobre el incremento del presupuesto para Agora EU y los nuevos desafíos a los que se enfrenta y quiero destacar las consecuencias importantes que se derivarán a las regiones ultraperiféricas. Como senadora española pero representante de una región ultraperiférica como Canarias, la financiación de estos programas representa mucho más que un proyecto artístico, es una oportunidad, intercambio, esperanza para quienes viviendo tan alejados del continente están profundamente comprometidos con el proyecto común europeo.
Por ello, desde esa sensibilidad con los ecosistemas que se mencionaban culturales, nacionales y locales, he querido destacar la importancia que tiene seguir trabajando hoy por mejorar la financiación de estos programas que garanticen una Europa más inclusiva y equitativa para los agentes culturales y educativos de las regiones ultraperiféricas más alejadas de Europa en los próximos años. Gracias.
Vielen Dank. Mr. Pavic aus Kroatien.
Pavic
Thank you very much. Dear chair, dear rapporteurs, the lessons learned from Creative Europe clearly demonstrate its European added value over the past decade. At the same time, evaluations have shown that demand for funding consistently exceeds available resources. In this context, I support the European Commission proposal to establish Agora EU, bringing together Creative Europe and Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values. However, simplification must never come at the expense of ambition, and we support European Parliament therefore to simultaneously strengthening the safeguards against dilution of existing sectoral priorities.
In Croatia, we have already initiated structural stakeholders dialogue on future of MFF with the public institutions, academia, creative industry and civil society institutions. We invest more than 300 million euros in civil society in the third and fourth generation of human rights, mostly social rights. During the program Zaželi, we invested more than 760 million euros into employment of 20,000 elderly women. During these consultations, stakeholders, especially from the civil society, supported the Agora. However, they voiced concerns about potential dilution of objectives, priorities and funding opportunities of existing programs dealing with media freedom, media pluralism, protection of civic space.
Simplification should strengthen impact and accessibility, but it must not weaken the dedicated support mechanism. I would also like to stress importance of creative industries. In Croatia, we have fantastic example of Novska in less developed region of Croatia. Through strategic investment, Novska has established a specialized gaming industry center and is currently developing state-of-the-art gaming arena. This initiative demonstrates how targeted support for creative and digital sectors can attract young talent, create high-value jobs, foster innovation and contribute to regional convergence.
Therefore, I support this report personally and on behalf of Croatian Parliament. Thank you very much.
Nela Riehl
Thank you very much. Und als nächstes Sabine für die EVP, Mitglied des Europäischen Parlamentes.
Sabine Verheyen
Ja, vielen Dank. Zunächst einmal möchte ich mich dafür bedanken, dass wir hier die Möglichkeit haben, uns auszutauschen, auch gerade mit der nationalen Ebene. Es wurde eben schon mal sehr deutlich gesagt, die Programme werden zusammengelegt. Das Budget wird erhöht nach den Vorstellungen des Parlaments deutlich mehr als die Kommission vorgeschlagen hat. Und trotzdem müssen wir aufpassen, dass Planungssicherheit bleibt und dass uns vor allem nachher in den Debatten die Mitgliedstaaten die Mittel nicht wieder zusammenstreichen.
Denn das ist eine große Gefahr, die im Moment da ist, und da brauchen wir auch Ihre Unterstützung gerade auch aus den nationalen Parlamenten. Denn eins möchte ich an der Stelle noch mal hervorheben. Dass der Kultur- und Kreativbereich ist für ca. 5 %, viereinhalb bis 5 % des Bruttosozialproduktes der Europäischen Union zuständig.
Über 8 Millionen junge Menschen arbeiten in diesen Sektoren. Und wir sprechen viel in Europa über Wettbewerbsfähigkeit, wir müssen Wirtschaft fördern. Wenn ich mir diese Prozentzahlen angucke, den Anteil der Kultur- und Kreativwirtschaft an der Wirtschaftskraft in der Europäischen Union, dann sind wir mit den Geldern, die wir für diese Programme zur Verfügung stellen, so gerade mal am unteren Rand, aber nicht da, wo wir wirklich sein könnten, gemessen an der Stärke, die dieser Sektor entwickeln kann. Zum Zweiten, und ich glaube, das ist auch für den LIBE-Ausschuss enorm wichtig: Wir haben in Corona alle gemerkt, was es bedeutet, wenn der Kultur- und Kreativbereich, wenn Medien, wenn all diese Dinge, die unser Leben prägen, die unsere Gesellschaften prägen, nicht mehr da sind oder geschwächt werden, welche Auswirkungen das auch auf unsere Gesellschaft haben kann. Wie angegriffen wir auch sein können über die Kultur, über den Kreativsektor, über Medien.
Wenn es darum geht, Attacken von außen abzuwehren, dann ist auch im Bereich Defense gerade Kultur und gerade auch Information und Medienpolitik enorm wichtig. Und deshalb meine große Bitte auch an Sie: Unterstützen Sie uns dabei, dass wir im Rahmen der Diskussionen um Defense und Wettbewerbsfähigkeit den Kultursektor nicht als etwas ansehen, was nice to have ist, sondern als Substanz unserer gesellschaftlichen Zusammenarbeit und unseres gesellschaftlichen Wirkens. Und darum bitte ich wirklich, dass wir hier an einem Strang ziehen, von der nationalen Ebene genauso wie auf der europäischen Ebene. Vielen Dank.
Louis-Jean de Nicolaÿ
Merci, Madame la Présidente, mes chers collègues. Comme nous l'avons rappelé dans un rapport d'information au Sénat en 2022, qui appelait à une stratégie européenne ambitieuse pour la culture et le patrimoine en matière de culture, l'Union européenne dispose d'une compétence d'appui sur le fondement de l'article 167 qui lui permet de développer une véritable politique culturelle européenne. Je tiens à saluer la déclaration interinstitutionnelle L'Europe pour la culture, la culture pour l'Europe, adoptée sous la présidence danoise et qui marque ainsi une véritable ambition pour les secteurs concernés. La boussole culturelle pour l'Europe présentée le 12 novembre 2025 par le commissaire Mikaliev vise aussi à mettre la culture au centre des politiques publiques européennes. Dans le contexte géopolitique actuel, la culture est en effet la première ligne de défense des démocraties, des valeurs et de la cohésion de l'Union européenne.
Le règlement établissant Agora EU va dans le même sens et je m'en réjouis. Dans cette perspective, la boussole culturelle et le règlement Agora EU marquent une étape décisive dans la reconnaissance du rôle stratégique de la culture au cœur du projet européen. Il s'agit de renforcer le cadre réglementaire protecteur de la diversité culturelle en affirmant l'autonomie stratégique de l'Europe dans le domaine culturel, en sauvegardant son patrimoine, ses cultures et son espace démocratique, en renforçant le sentiment d'appartenance des citoyens européens, en particulier les jeunes, à une même culture européenne diverse, résolument tournée vers l'avenir mais profondément enracinée dans une histoire millénaire. En valorisant aussi l'attractivité et le rayonnement de l'Union au-delà de ses frontières via l'extraordinaire richesse de son patrimoine unique au monde. Ce nouveau règlement bâtit un programme d'ensemble visant à soutenir les secteurs de la culture, de la création et des médias en établissant une enveloppe financière indicative.
Madame la Présidente, mes chers collègues, faisons de ce programme Agora EU un instrument efficace au service de la création, du pluralisme des médias et des valeurs démocratiques. Je vous remercie.
Helledie
Und Herr Helledie aus Dänemark.
Thank you. From a Danish perspective, as we also have highlighted under the Danish presidency, Creative Europe has an extremely valuable program which have strengthened both European culture and the creative sector in general. It has enabled artists, museum, cultural institutions and creative organizations to collaborate across borders and contribute to a stronger European culture identity. We need to keep this as a core and the overall vision which we pursue from here. We also welcome the ambition behind the new future Agora Europe program, but we see clear potential for also improving it based on the knowledge we have from Creative Europe.
First of all, I have to say that there are simply too many application and not enough money in the program. In the previous two calls, we had more than 1,800 proposal written in the last term and 1,600 in the previous one, giving it a winning rate of less than 5%. This is not an understanding of that there is a lack of quality in the program. There is a high quality, but there is a demand for more opportunities to be given. If we cannot increase the budget, at least we need to simplify the application process and lower the alternative cost of applying.
Too many are disappointed with the program as it is right now. Denmark therefore encourage for a simpler application process for small-scale projects, including a greater use of lump sum funding and more proportional reporting requirements, especially for smaller program. There needs to be a difference in whether you receive 200,000 euros or 2 million euros. As of right now, there are similar requirements although with amount you receive. Finally, the integration of CERV into Agora Europe represent an opportunity to strengthen visibility and outreach.
Greater coordination and stronger support within the structure can help to ensure the organization across all member states are better at equipping and accessing these opportunities on a European scale. We want a vibrant European culture, active citizens, strong democratic participation, but we also must ensure that our programs are adequately funded, easy to access and visible to those that they are intended for. And with this in mind, we need to give artist a way of creating a sustainable income they can actually live from. Thank you so much.
Hannes Heide
Danke schön. Und Mitglied des Europäischen Parlaments, Herr Hannes Heide für die S&D.
Geschätzte Kolleginnen und Kollegen, ich bin sehr dankbar für diesen Austausch, weil ich ihn für notwendig und absolut unverzichtbar erachte. Und ich muss sagen, ich verfolge die Diskussion auch mit Freude, nämlich aus dem Hinblick, dass ich immer gesagt habe, Creative Europe hat die Möglichkeit, hat das Potenzial, die Herzen der Europäerinnen und Europäer zu erreichen, so wie es Erasmus+ bereits macht. Und es freut mich, dass in mehreren Stellungnahmen bereits Creative Europe definitiv genannt wurde. Und das ist Beweis für mich, dass diese erfolgreiche Bezeichnung, diese Marke auch fortgeführt werden muss. Die andere Seite der Medaille ist, dass Creative Europe das einzige Programm der Europäischen Union ist, das ausschließlich der Kultur gewidmet ist.
Es ist uns gelungen als Parlament, eine Position zu finden, wo wir eine deutliche Erhöhung des Programms erfordern. Diese möchte ich ebenfalls noch einmal erwähnen, ist aber keinesfalls garantiert. Und um das zu erreichen, dass wir die Beträge, die jetzt auf dem Tisch liegen, auch wirklich umsetzen können bei einem mehrjährigen Finanzrahmen, bedarf es auch die Unterstützung von Ihnen, den Abgeordneten aus den Mitgliedsländern, weil letztlich ist es ja auch der Rat, sind es die Mitgliedsländer, die mitentscheiden, ob diese ambitionierten Zahlen auch umsetzbar sind und ob sie dann auch zur Verfügung stehen. Und dieses Miteinander wird uns helfen, dass wir Potenziale heben können, nämlich der Kreativ- und Kulturbereich ist ein wichtiger Arbeitgeber, er ist ein Wirtschaftsfaktor. Wir haben Wachstumsraten, Potenziale, die wir in wirtschaftlich schwierigen Zeiten nutzen müssen.
Wir sind in einer Situation multipler Krisen. Wir müssen unsere Demokratie verteidigen und ein erfolgreiches Programm Agora EU mit Creative Europe muss Potenziale heben und dazu gehört für mich auch die künstlerische Freiheit und damit auch eine demokratiepolitische Entwicklung. Aber ich bin sehr erfreut darüber, dass wir eine gemeinsame Grundlinie haben und ich bin überzeugt, in dieser Zusammenarbeit zwischen der nationalen Ebene, zwischen nationalen Parlamenten und der parlamentarischen Ebene in Europa, dass wir diese Ziele erreichen können und da danke ich schon jetzt für die Zusammenarbeit und für die Unterstützung.
Robra
Bom dia, boa tarde a todos e cumprimento também todos os presentes nesta sessão. Na Grécia Antiga, a Ágora era o espaço de encontro dos cidadãos, de debate e de construção da casa comum. E, portanto, é particularmente interessante que este programa possa ter esta designação, porque, de facto, esta é a necessidade primordial que a Europa vem sentindo nos últimos anos. Este é um programa desenvolvido para as áreas da cultura, dos media e da democracia, que podem parecer áreas ou domínios separados, mas são, na realidade, de forma confluente, as três pernas comuns do projeto comum europeu. Este é, ainda por cima, um momento particularmente crítico para este projeto poder ser aprovado, no momento em que nós encontramos o discurso de ódio a ser normalizado, particularmente nas redes sociais, a desinformação e a descredibilização das instituições a irem corroendo as nossas instituições, ao mesmo tempo que nós sabemos que é com a cultura que criamos a empatia e a identidade partilhada, que é com o jornalismo livre e plural que nós combatemos o vazio onde a radicalização vai prosperando, e ao mesmo tempo sabemos também que é através da cidadania que transformamos valores em participação democrática concreta.
Portanto, para a concretização deste projeto, eu deixava três notas muito concretas. Uma primeira, que a adoção destes, deste projeto com as três áreas e com as três vertentes distintas permita, por um lado, que a cultura e o cinema não percam a sua autonomia estratégica. Por muito que seja importante que elas estejam ao serviço dos importantes valores que estão também neste projeto, a sua autonomia e projetos específicos dirigidos apenas para esta área é fundamental. Por outro lado, também é importante que haja mecanismos de financiamento que sejam interdisciplinares entre eles e, portanto, que permitam o desenvolvimento destes projetos interdisciplinares e cruzados entre os diferentes objetivos que fazem parte deste Ágora EU. E, por outro lado, que sabemos que ainda continuamos a ter Europa e regiões a velocidades diferentes, que haja a possibilidade de programas de capacitação para as instituições que podem recorrer a estes financiamentos, porque sabemos que muitas delas ficam de fora logo na fase de fazerem a sua projeção e a sua candidatura a estes fundos.
E, portanto, terminaria apenas de dizer que esta Ágora europeia só funciona se todos os cidadãos puderem participar e se a cultura tiver o espaço e os recursos para ser essa linguagem comum que nos une. Muito obrigado.
Danke und Herr Robra aus Deutschland.
Brigitte VAN DER BERG
In einer Zeit, in der die kulturelle Souveränität und demokratische Resilienz als Werte der EU zunehmend in Frage gestellt werden, ist die kulturelle Dimension wichtiger denn je. Heute ist auch eine europäische Plattform nach dem Leitbild von Arte wichtiger als jemals zuvor. Das ist ein ursprünglich französisches Projekt gemeinsam mit den deutschen Ländern, inzwischen sind fünf weitere Mitgliedstaaten beteiligt und die weitere Europäisierung von Arte kann dazu beitragen, die Sichtbarkeit europäischer Programminhalte zu erhöhen und ein attraktives Gegenangebot zu insbesondere US-amerikanisch dominierten Streaming-Plattformen zu machen.
Starke verlässliche Medienangebote, die Orientierung bieten, demokratische Resilienz fördern und ein europäisches Bewusstsein stärken, sind ein echter Mehrwert für Europa. Zudem entsteht durch europäisches Film- und Medienschaffen reale Wertschöpfung in Europa. Ziel sollte sein, Arte als multilinguale digitale Plattform auszubauen, die europäische Perspektiven, Kultur und Debatten in allen Mitgliedstaaten und darüber hinaus sichtbar macht. Daher sollte in Agora EU eine angemessene Finanzierung für die zusätzlichen Kosten der Übersetzung und Distribution dieses europäischen Projektes eingestellt werden.
Carazo
Vielen Dank und damit übergebe ich an Brigitte van der Berg, Mitglied des Europäischen Parlaments.
Kouvelas
Yes, thank you very much and very happy to have this conversation with you right now on this timely moment when we are making the new Agora EU program for the coming seven years. And it's also it's more and more important that we shape a strong program because our cultural sovereignty is is really under threat. And this program above all others can make sure that people can express themselves, that we can build our culture and feed our culture and make sure that we can really make creative productions possible. And then therefore it's essential that we do that in in the right way. I've already heard a lot of comments from you, but I would be interested to hear a little bit more about how you think that we can reach the small independent creators more with this fund.
And do you see that in this in your member state this money mostly goes to the larger organizations or do you see that the fund is also sufficient to really reach those small local cultural organizations and those grassroots initiatives? I would be interested to hear more about that. And also I what what feedback do you receive nationally from cultural and creative organizations about the administrative burden of the EU fundings and well, of course, especially from the cultural organizations. And do you how do you see the role of the national parliaments in safeguarding the artistic and editorial independence when public funding is involved? And lastly, I would be interested to hear if you have some good examples from your member state about micro grants, about cascade funding or other low threshold funding models to successfully reach smaller cultural organizations and independent creators.
Thank you very much.
Carazo
Sí, muy bien pronunciado. Muchas gracias, presidenta. Esto de poner a un político a solo dos minutos es difícil, pero lo vamos a intentar. Es una muestra de la eficiencia de las instituciones europeas frente a lo que se dice por ahí, ¿no? Yo quería hacer dos comentarios breves.
Primero respecto al sector cultural, dos aspectos que consideramos importantes de cara a la programación futura de los programas culturales de la Unión Europea. En primer lugar, en lo que se refiere a las circunstancias laborales de los trabajadores culturales, tienen unas circunstancias que se separan muchas veces del marco laboral general.
En el caso de España se adoptó una medida que es el estatuto del artista, además con un gran consenso político que se está desarrollando en los últimos años y que trata de adaptar el marco laboral a las condiciones laborales de los trabajadores culturales en nuestro país. Pero hay una iniciativa europea en este sentido y creemos que es muy importante poner el acento ahí. En segundo lugar, creemos que debe considerarse el sector cultural como una industria y como un sector de empresas. Es verdad que hay una parte de talento y una parte de creatividad, pero también hay una parte económica de creación de empleo y de creación de riqueza y para eso debe ser más competitivo el sector y para ello debe haber una mayor colaboración. Es verdad que sigue siendo un sector muy fragmentado a nivel nacional, no hay todavía una integración europea como lo puede haber en otros sectores y eso hace que las empresas tengan unos tamaños que les impiden competir a veces con grandes empresas audiovisuales o culturales que puede haber en los Estados Unidos o en China.
Y en tercer lugar, respecto a los medios de comunicación, expresar una preocupación respecto a la dependencia gubernamental de los medios públicos de comunicación. Esa preocupación está reflejada en el reglamento europeo de libertad de medios. Nosotros estamos siendo como grupo político en España muy críticos con esta situación. Entiendo que siempre los grupos de la oposición son críticos con los gobiernos en cuanto al control de los medios públicos de comunicación, pero creemos que hay una serie de previsiones en el reglamento europeo que deben concretarse. No puede quedarse simplemente en proclamas bonitas, sino que debe concretarse en garantizar la pluralidad y en reforzar a los medios independientes y privados para que puedan hacer de contrapeso también a esos medios públicos.
Nada más y muchas gracias, presidenta.
Vielen Dank und Herr Kouvelas aus Griechenland.
Kouvelas
Thank you chair. Καλησπέρα αγαπητές και αγαπητοί συνάδελφοι. Για την ελληνική κυβέρνηση ο πολιτισμός αποτελεί κεντρικό πυλώνα της δημοκρατικής μας ανθεκτικότητας και της συλλογικής μας μνήμης. Κατά συνέπεια στηρίζουμε σθεναρά την ενοποίηση των σκελών Δημιουργική Ευρώπη, Media και Σκέλος σε ένα ενιαίο φιλόδοξο πρόγραμμα που αναγνωρίζει την εγγενή αξία του πολιτισμού πέραν από την οικονομική του διάσταση. Πολύ γρήγορα θα αναφερθώ σε πέντε ελληνικές στρατηγικές προτεραιότητες.
Η Ελλάδα ήδη έχει δρομολογήσει την πρωτοβουλία Creative Greece, η οποία λειτουργεί αξιοποιώντας εθνικούς και ευρωπαϊκούς πόρους ως ένα ενιαίο οικοσύστημα που προάγει την εξωστρέφεια και την καινοτομία. Ενισχύουμε τον προϋπολογισμό για την κληρονομιά, τόσο την υλική όσο και την άυλη κληρονομιά, καθώς επίσης τα μουσεία αλλά και τα ιστορικά αρχεία. Ένα τρίτο σημείο είναι η προστασία της ανθρώπινης δημιουργικότητας έναντι της τεχνητής νοημοσύνης. Για μας είναι κόκκινη περίοδος, κόκκινη γραμμή στη νέα περίοδο να προστατεύσουμε την ανθρώπινη δημιουργικότητα καθώς και να διασφαλίσουμε την πλήρη διαφάνεια και να προστατεύσουμε τα δικαιώματα πνευματικής ιδιοκτησίας των δημιουργών σε όλη την Ευρώπη. Σημείο τέταρτο, αναφορικά με το σκέλος Media Plus, να αναγνωριστούν οι προκλήσεις που αντιμετωπίζουν χώρες με χαμηλή οπτικοακουστική ικανότητα ή περιορισμένη γλωσσική εμβέλεια όπως είναι η Ελλάδα.
Βρίσκουμε ότι η στήριξη των ανεξάρτητων παραγωγών και των συμπαραγωγών είναι απαραίτητη για τη διασφάλιση της πολιτιστικής και γλωσσικής πολυμορφίας στην Ευρώπη. Τέλος, τα Agora EU Desks πρέπει να είναι πλήρως αυτόνομα και εξοπλισμένα κατά την άποψή μας ώστε να πετύχουμε να μειώσουμε τη γραφειοκρατία για τις μικρές περιφερειακές οργανώσεις και τους καλλιτέχνες. Θα συμφωνήσω ότι το Agora EU μπορεί να αποτελέσει και πρέπει να αποτελέσει μια ασπίδα για τη δημοκρατία μας απέναντι στην παραπληροφόρηση και το διχασμό και ως τέτοια πρέπει να ενισχυθεί στον επόμενο, στο επόμενο χρηματοδοτικό πλαίσιο.
Christopher O'Sullivan
Go raibh míle maith agat, merci beaucoup Madame. I'm from Ireland and we're the only country in the world I believe which has a musical instrument as our national emblem, which is the harp of course. So I very much welcome the inclusion of music as a strand in Agora 2028-34 funding program. Music apart from its immeasurable value also contributes 81.9 billion in gross value to the GDP. So I believe we need to safeguard human creativity and independent artists from the threat of AI.
AI basically is is high-tech plagiarism software which represents the greatest theft of intellectual property rights and copyright we've seen in centuries. So we need to seriously address the threat to independent music and artists from AI and also to protect independent creators and provide them with a fair remuneration that's easily accessible for artists and musicians in Ireland and throughout the EU. So go raibh maith agaibh.
Ganz herzlichen Dank, Mr. Vannecke aus Belgien. Mrs. Entschuldigung.
Vannecke
Thank you Mrs. Chair, dear colleagues. As a member of the Flemish Parliament, I would like to underline how valuable Erasmus+ remains for Flanders, Belgium and for Europe as a whole. The Flemish evaluation of this confirms something many of us already experience in practice. It changes lives, learners, teachers and organizations report high levels of satisfaction and strong long-term effects on language skills, employability, innovation and internationalization. In recent years alone, Flemish higher education registered, excuse me, more than 4,200 outgoing staff mobilities and more than 1,500 incoming staff mobilities through this project, showing how strongly the program connects our educational institutions across Europe.
It strengthens entire educational and cultural ecosystems, schools, universities and training organizations become more outward-looking, more innovative and more connected to Europe. But the evaluation also teaches us important lessons for the future multi-annual financial framework. First, we must reduce administrative complexity. Smaller organizations and newcomers still experience barriers when applying, especially due to unstable digital management tools and heavy procedures. Simplification should therefore become a key priority for the next generation of programs.
Second, dissemination and cooperation deserve more support. Many excellent Erasmus+ projects remain too invisible outside their immediate network. We should strengthen cooperation between national agencies, governments, schools, universities and intermediary organizations so that good practices can create broader systematic impact across Europe. And finally, in times of budgetary pressure, the answer is not only more resources, but also better coordination by bundling expertise, reducing duplication and simplifying procedures. We can make Erasmus+ stronger, more efficient and more accessible.
It's not a luxury program, it's an investment in democratic resilience, skills, cultural understanding and European cohesion. I thank you.
Speaker 32
Thank you and Mrs. McGreehan from Ireland. So I know she spoke English, I wanted to speak German but... Your mic please. Press once, yes.
McGreehan
Perfect. Thank you, Chair. First off, culture is integral to our European identity and the protection of cultural diversity means protecting the voices, languages and stories of all our nations. I welcome the near doubling of the Culture and Media budget in the Agora EU, but I have to share concerns that without earmarked budget lines per strand, flexibility can become unpredictability. Independent producers, arts organizations, minority language communities like our Irish language community, the Gaeltachts in Ireland, cannot plan on a basis of indicative figures.
I also stress that the independence criterion is to be disregarded. It is a removal of potentially risks redirecting funds towards large broadcasters, which in my opinion is the opposite of what Creative Europe was designed to achieve in the first place. I would also insist that the desks must be properly funded in order to make sure that smaller nation states like Ireland have a gateway and a clear pathway to this funding, because without a simplification process, it is more difficult to get it. Go raibh maith agat.
Zukevičienė
Gerbiama pirmininke, gerbiami kolegos. Lietuva vertina programą Creative Europe kaip vieną iš svarbiausių Europos kultūrinio bendradarbiavimo ir kūrybinių industrijų stiprinimo instrumentų. Mūsų patirtis rodo, kad ši programa ne tik padeda išsaugoti kultūrinę ir kalbinę įvairovę, bet ir suteikia realių galimybių nacionalinėms organizacijoms augti, kurti tarptautines partnerystes bei didinti savo konkurencingumą. Lietuvos kultūros ir audiovizualinis sektoriai aktyviai naudojasi programos teikiamomis galimybėmis. Matome sėkmės istorijas kino, leidybos, festivalių ir tarptautinio bendradarbiavimo srityse.
Vis dėlto kartu matome ir iššūkius: didelę konkurenciją, perteklinį paraiškų skaičių bei administracinę naštą, kuri ypač apsunkina mažesnių organizacijų dalyvavimą. Todėl diskutuodami apie būsimąją Agora EU programą tikimės, kad ji taps ne tik didesnio biudžeto, bet ir paprastesnės prieigos programa. Mums svarbu, kad kultūros organizacijos, kūrėjai, regioninės iniciatyvos ir nevyriausybinis sektorius galėtų daugiau dėmesio skirti turiniui, o ne biurokratinėms procedūroms. Lietuva palankiai vertina siekį vienoje programoje sujungti kultūros, žiniasklaidos ir pilietinės visuomenės dimensijas. Šiandien, kai susiduriame su dezinformacija, demokratijos iššūkiais ir geopolitine įtampa, investicijos į kultūrą, nepriklausomą žiniasklaidą ir pilietinį aktyvumą tampa ne mažiau svarbios nei investicijos į ekonomiką ar infrastruktūrą.
Mūsų lūkestis, kad Agora EU išlaikytų stiprų dėmesį kultūrinei ir kalbinei įvairovei, užtikrintų deramą paramą mažesnių valstybių narių organizacijoms ir sudarytų daugiau galimybių tapti europinių projektų lyderėmis, o ne vien partnerėmis. Lietuvai tai reiškia daugiau galimybių mūsų kultūros ir kūrybinių industrijų augimui, stipresnį Europos kultūrinį matomumą ir didesnį mūsų piliečių įsitraukimą į bendrą Europos demokratinį projektą. Ačiū.
Siuen
Thank you, Mr. Siuën from Belgium.
Siuën, but thank you. Ja, ik ben zelf een artiest, ik ben zelf een professioneel muzikant en ik wilde dus ook even stilstaan bij de arbeidsvoorwaarden van de vele cultuurwerkers. In Vlaanderen zijn er zes miljoen mensen en daarvan zijn 225.000 mensen actief in de creatieve en de culturele sector.
Ook bij de zelfstandigen zijn 17% werkzaam in de cultuursector. En bovendien van die 6 miljoen mensen zijn 2 miljoen mensen, een derde zijn amateurkunstenaars. En eigenlijk ons publiek, als ze swipen van de ene serie op Netflix naar de andere of als ze luisteren naar een nieuwe playlist op Spotify of andere platformen, dan staat het publiek niet meer stil bij het werk dat allemaal vooraf ging om zoiets te maken. Dus is het zeer belangrijk dat we samen in Europa stilstaan bij die fair pay, bij die arbeidsvoorwaarden, dat we blijven strijden voor de intellectuele rechten van de artiesten, natuurlijk ook onze vrijheid van meningsuiting. En ik denk aan fake news, alles wat dat te maken heeft met film, met documentaires is superbelangrijk, vrijheid om te reizen.
Maar ik denk ook dat Creative Europe een brug kan zijn om vanuit al die staten, vanuit die solidariteit ook uit te dragen wat de waarde is van ons werk en voor die arbeidsvoorwaarden van al die cultuurwerkers te blijven vechten. Dank u wel.
Berky
Děkuji, milé kolegyně, milí kolegové. Je radostí slyšet, jak si uvědomujeme, že podpora kultury je něco, co vytváří odolnost také Evropy. Chtěl bych velmi podpořit paní europoslankyni van der Breck v těch otázkách, které kladla, na něž podle mě jsou důležité skutečně odpovědi, nikoli proklamační, ale faktické z těch národních parlamentů, z těch států. A já k těm otázkám ale přidám jednu provokativní: jak doručíme podporu minoritní, tedy nemainstreamové kultury i do států, kde to pro vládu není prioritou, nebo naopak dokonce pro tu aktuální to může být nějakou nechtěnou věcí?
Nela Riehl
Das war die erste Runde aller Anmerkungen, damit gebe ich das Wort erstmal wieder Emma für eine kurze Antwort und dann können wir gerne noch eine zweite Runde machen, bevor es dann an die Kommission geht, aber erstmal Emma, du hast das Wort.
Emma Rafowicz
Merci à toutes et à tous, je vais m'efforcer de faire du rapide, mais je vais aussi tenter de répondre à vos questions, donc je ne suis pas certaine de pouvoir être aussi rapide que la présidente le souhaite. J'aimerais évidemment vous remercier pour l'ensemble de vos questions parce que je crois que vous placez finalement l'exigence d'une politique culturelle européenne ambitieuse à la hauteur des défis que rencontre l'Europe aujourd'hui. Si nous pensons aujourd'hui cette politique culturelle ambitieuse à travers Agora EU, c'est bien parce que l'Europe aujourd'hui est finalement au cœur d'un moment politique extrêmement dur où nous le voyons, la culture en particulier est sans doute l'espace politique, puisque c'est aussi un espace politique, dans lequel se joue de manière extrêmement concrète cet affrontement majeur entre forces de la démocratie d'un côté et forces de la réaction. Et tout ça touche évidemment aussi les débats que nous rencontrons ici dans ce Parlement autour d'Agora EU. Je suis évidemment très favorable à ce qui a été évoqué par certains demandant notamment une forme de simplification pour notamment les acteurs qui le demandent.
Je pense cependant que nous ne devons pas tomber dans le piège de confondre simplification et dérégulation ou simplification et finalement quelque chose qui viendrait mettre à mal les politiques culturelles et les objectifs politiques que nous avons derrière les politiques culturelles que nous portons en Europe.
En effet, défendre la culture aujourd'hui, c'est défendre une forme de résilience pour notre continent, une forme aussi, il faut le dire, de force pour notre Union européenne et pour nos valeurs. À travers la culture, nous défendons la démocratie et en ce sens d'ailleurs, ce nouveau programme Agora est intéressant dans cette nouvelle mouture tant il lie les sujets. Il lie le sujet culturel, le sujet de l'information et celui évidemment, vous l'avez vu aussi, de l'accompagnement de la société civile. De la même manière que j'ai pu le dire à l'instant, je pense que le piège serait de parce que nous traitons ces sujets dans un même programme, de venir les confondre sans différence budgétaire claire et marquée à l'intérieur même de ce grand ensemble. Donc je le dis ainsi, c'est bien avec tout cela en tête qu'avec ma co-rapporteure nous avons décidé de marquer des différences claires budgétaires à l'intérieur de ces budgets pour finalement avoir des délimitations concrètes et claires dans ces programmes, ce qui n'empêche pas évidemment d'avoir aussi des ambitions horizontales.
Pour ce qu'il s'agit aussi du soutien dans les territoires et de l'accompagnement au plus près des acteurs culturels, nous avons proposé et nous proposons le renforcement des desks Europe Créative que vous connaissez, ces espaces finalement qui ont vocation à créer du lien mais aussi, il faut le dire, à parfois simplifier des démarches qui pour certains sont compliquées à comprendre, à entreprendre et dans lesquelles se lancer. Nous permettons aussi à travers les fonds cascades que vous connaissez sans doute, de permettre à des structures plus importantes d'accompagner finalement à travers une seule démarche un ensemble de petites structures, notamment associatives, parce que nous parlons évidemment beaucoup d'entreprises mais il ne faut pas oublier que dans le secteur culturel, notamment dans la musique et c'est aussi cela qui est derrière notre ambition de créer un volet musique dédié, nous savons que la richesse et la diversité culturelle de l'Europe repose aussi sur des structures qui sont parfois associatives. La question de l'intelligence artificielle a été posée de deux manières par Madame Calvez sur l'accompagnement notamment des structures aux transitions et comment est-ce que peut-être Agora pouvait aider à cela. Nous, notamment nous aidons à travers Agora déjà, à travers Europe Créative et Media, un certain nombre de structures dans leur trajectoire de transition. Je crois cependant que Agora en tant que tel n'est pas forcément l'espace unique pour accompagner notamment les espaces de recherche de l'innovation et c'est pour cela aussi qu'avec un certain nombre de nos collègues, nous avons travaillé à pouvoir inclure des objectifs culturels notamment dans le fonds de compétitivité et aussi dans Horizon afin qu'on puisse avoir des sources de financement multiples pour ce genre d'actions.
Vous l'avez dit, le sujet du budget est majeur et j'y reviendrai ensuite. Ensuite sur ce qui a été évoqué notamment par nos collègues irlandais, à savoir l'importance de placer au cœur de nos réflexions le droit d'auteur toujours et évidemment le respect de notre État de droit puisque cela, je crois, va de pair. Nous avons en tête, et vous l'avez peut-être vu dans ce Parlement en particulier, que si nous voulons en effet sans doute le développement d'une IA compétitive en Europe, nous ne voulons pas que cela se fasse au détriment de l'humain, avec un grand H sans doute, et au détriment de notre droit et de nos artistes. Nous le disons dans ce rapport, l'art, la culture, la création, c'est évidemment humain. L'IA peut être un outil qui accompagne la création mais jamais il ne doit remplacer à aucun moment la création et les artistes.
En ce sens, nous avons inclus dans le texte des objectifs horizontaux qui rappellent cela : aucun fonds européen ne doit aller finalement à un projet qui ne placerait pas l'humain et le droit d'auteur, le respect aussi au droit d'auteur et au copyright, au cœur du projet.
Monsieur De Nicolaï rappelait que la culture est évidemment une compétence partagée, elle est avant tout nationale et l'Europe est là pour être évidemment là en compétence d'appui. Je crois que ce que nous sommes en train de construire ici avec vous toutes et tous, c'est un accompagnement évidemment de ce qui peut exister dans les États membres, mais aussi cette vision stratégique culturelle européenne qui nous permet d'être compétitifs, certains ont utilisé ce terme-là aussi en matière de soft power par rapport à d'autres puissances dans le monde. Quand nous écoutons en Europe de la musique coréenne ou quand nous regardons des films américains, nous devons avoir évidemment en tête que tout cela n'est pas uniquement né, même s'il y a bien sûr du talent d'artistes et de producteurs, c'est aussi né d'ambitions politiques assumées de la part d'États qui ont fait le choix d'être puissants à l'étranger via leur culture. À travers Agora, je crois que c'est aussi cette ambition-là que nous portons, à savoir réellement porter aussi, il faut le dire, une politique de puissance européenne et de souveraineté européenne à travers la culture. Et je terminerai sur le sujet de la diversité culturelle et linguistique, parce que c'était abordé notamment dans les dernières questions.
Nous avons à cœur de placer au centre de ce programme, notamment parce que nous le savons, les vents mauvais traversent le monde mais parfois même notre continent, la liberté de création doit être au cœur de notre vision de la culture, tout comme également la diversité des esthétiques et de ce que nous arrivons à promouvoir. Aujourd'hui, nous le voyons, il y a une explosion de la censure et ou de l'autocensure selon évidemment les espaces. Dans ce cadre-là, la liberté de création, mais aussi finalement jamais de hiérarchiser les formes de création doit être au cœur de ce qu'on propose. Enfin sur le budget, parce que cela a été évoqué, tout ce qu'on se dit là est évidemment encore conditionné à d'autres discussions qui viendront et qui ne sont pas encore terminées. Vous êtes des représentants de parlements nationaux qui, je l'espère, pouvez avoir un poids important vis-à-vis de vos ministres de la culture respectifs, de vos ministres nationaux.
Le budget européen tel qu'il se construit peut être honnêtement aussi fabuleux que ce que vous décrivez tous et ce que vous avez pour vœu ou étrangement décevant. Je crois qu'il est de notre responsabilité collective de peser pour qu'il soit le moins décevant possible et qu'il soit le plus ambitieux possible. Pour cela nous comptons sur vous. Et je n'oublie évidemment pas la question du patrimoine. Aujourd'hui le patrimoine doit être soutenu aussi à l'échelle européenne, c'est ce que nous proposons aussi à travers ce texte.
Et j'espère en tout cas qu'au-delà de la question budgétaire il vous satisfait. Et je le dis avant de repasser la main à ma présidente qui me regarde avec des gros yeux parce qu'on parle pendant trop longtemps. Je crois que nous devons aussi avoir en tête que ce programme Agora il sera efficace parce qu'il est construit aussi à l'échelle de nos territoires. Et donc je le dis aussi en me faisant la porte-parole de ma co-rapporteure mais aussi je le pense de tous les rapporteurs fictifs autour de ce texte, n'hésitez évidemment pas à prendre attache avec nous, à nous proposer aussi de venir directement dans vos villes, dans vos régions. Je pense qu'il est important de garantir que ce programme ne soit pas quelque chose qui vienne du haut mais bien qu'il soit nourri de toutes nos réflexions communes.
Je vous remercie.
Vielen Dank. Wir kommen zur zweiten Runde der Fragestellenden. Dann haben wir zwei MPs gerade auf der Liste. Das ist zum einen oder wir beginnen wieder mit Frau Calvez aus Frankreich. Sie darf noch einmal.
Céline Calvez
Merci. Merci beaucoup. Moi je voulais reprendre la parole pour évoquer une hypothèse qui a été notamment soutenue par Culture Action Europe, à savoir que peut-être que nous pourrions demander à ce que les amendes infligées aux grandes entreprises technologiques contrevenant à la législation numérique européenne telle que le DSA ou le DMA ou encore l'AI Act soient affectées en complément des financements de Agora EU.
Je voulais savoir s'il y avait des réflexions sur ce sujet et quels étaient l'état des forces. Merci beaucoup.
Nela Riehl
Danke für diese Frage und das zweite Mitglied, das eine Frage stellen möchte, ist wieder Herr Helledie aus Dänemark.
Helledie
Sorry, it's not really a question, it was more of an answer to Mrs. Vandenberg's question earlier. We share the opinion that smaller organizations often find themselves forced to find partners in larger institutions or professional organizations in order to actually participate because it's simply too hard for them. There is no difference between whether you apply for 20,000 or 400,000 euros in a program like this one. The application and reporting processes are the same, which of course is a limitation, especially for the independent participant. When it comes to independent cultural actors, they simply remain a challenge to get involved in programs like these ones, particularly when it comes to performing arts and theater actors.
And I just quickly wanted to say to Van Roeyken from Flanders that Denmark and Flanders apparently share more than the obsession and passion with cycling. We share the same issue when it comes to involving smaller organizations in the reporting of a program like this one. For the last one, I just wanted to say that we don't have any current experience with cascade grants, but I think this is a path which is worth following, as well as lump sum funding for small organizations would be.
Nela Riehl
Vielen Dank und Emma möchte gern auf die Frage von Frau Calvès einmal antworten.
Emma Rafowicz
Je vais répondre très rapidement à ce que à la question de Madame Calvès. C'est en effet dans nos réflexions et dans le rapport Agora tel qu'il est aujourd'hui proposé par les co-rapporteurs pour ensuite maintenant les débats qui vont arriver au Parlement. Cette disposition nous y tenons particulièrement pour l'expliciter pour qu'une partie des amendes au titre du DSA et du DMA soit en effet affectée à la culture et aussi à Erasmus. D'ailleurs c'est dans les deux enjeux. C'est quelque chose qu'on porte et qu'il me semble particulièrement important.
Même chose, je pense, disposition à soutenir pour le Conseil tant les questions budgétaires sont en ce moment particulièrement tendues.
Dankeschön Emma. Nun erteile ich das Wort den Vertreterinnen und Vertretern der Europäischen Kommission und auch des Rats für abschließende Bemerkungen. Zuerst Herr Georg Häusler, Direktor für Kultur, Kreativität und Sport an der DG EAC in der Kommission. Sie haben für fünf Minuten das Wort.
Georg Häusler
Vielen Dank. Thank you very much. So I try to make a few general comments and then as much as possible also respond to some of the remarks the colleagues from the national and European Parliaments have made. So first of all, for us this is an extremely useful exercise here today, also considering that culture is obviously a shared competence and it's mainly within the member states and within the regions where the responsibility for culture lies. And therefore we consider this to be an extremely important exchange.
Let me also say that the messages we have received both now from the European Parliament representatives and from the national parliament representatives are very heartening to us because they are extremely positive and very complementary for the program as it stands, Creative Europe. Now this is obviously a very interesting moment because as we speak we are in the negotiations for the future program, but we also are in the process of implementing the last of the current program. The annual work program for the Creative Europe 2027 is in its finalization, so this is a particularly valuable moment to have this exchange.
Now, as you know, the basis for the Agora proposal is obviously the mid-term evaluations and also a strong feedback from the stakeholders and also from different and diverse parliament reports. And what was made clear in these evaluations and in this feedback is that the stakeholders support the basic principle of this program, which is the cooperation across borders, helping the sector to become more ambitious and more innovative, accelerating their learning curves through exchange and stimulating the circulation of cultural works throughout the Creative Europe countries, 41 as we speak, going beyond the European Union. I think it also showed in the current program period, and that's something which is continued in the followed in the proposal, that this program has a lot of flexibility allowing it to respond to events which have not been foreseen, just to mention two, COVID and Ukraine, where we had the possibility thanks to the flexibility inbuilt into the program to react and to set and stress programs in this direction, set up specific calls for Ukraine and adapted to the COVID situation. We also have seen that the visibility of the program has increased, but yet I think in the proposal we are making, we see that this is still an area of improvement and we certainly want to go in this direction. I'm not talking here about the limited budget, you have done it in extenso, that is clearly one of the issues which the Commission proposal tries to address by increasing the budget proposal and as we hear now, the Parliament is even going beyond this.
Now, so the idea of the Agora proposal is to make the program slimmer and more streamlined, but build on the exercise, the successful exercise of the current program and not fundamentally changing its content. Now, maybe a few comments to what you have been saying now during this exchange. First, there have been a number of issues which have been addressed: economic importance of the sector, AI, working condition of artists, access to culture and freedom of expression, which many of you have considered to be one of the top priorities of the current cultural discussions. Now, as you know, in parallel to this process, and some of you have mentioned it, there has been the Compass for Culture, which is the political angle, so to speak, of the cultural policy as proposed by the Commission. And as we speak, there was an agreement between the three institutions on a joint declaration for the future strategic outlook of the cultural policy in its in the future.
Now, to look at some of these elements, AI, for example, obviously this is one of the top priorities currently in the cultural sector, top priorities in many senses. And we have proposed to launch a AI strategy for the cultural and creative sectors, which is going to be adopted in the beginning of 2027. And we believe this is the right place to have this political debate, right political debate for the cultural and creative sectors on the different elements of the AI and what AI brings and changes, brings as changes to the sector. Obviously, and this is going beyond the scope of our discussion this afternoon, a lot of elements for AI are in different legislative frameworks, copyright directives, AI Act, etc. And there are important elements which help and also cover the cultural and creative sectors.
And I think this, as we speak, is in the making. As for the working condition of the artists, this is also one of the most important elements of the cultural compass. There will be a number of initiatives coming also from Commission side in the coming months and years for the improvement of the working condition of artists. The same to access of culture, we have proposed a number of specific actions to improve the access for culture for all generations throughout the European Union. It is considered to be a important policy element, but this again goes beyond cultural policy.
This is also an issue of regional policy and of other policies in the European Union. The freedom of expression of artists is clearly one of the also headlines of the cultural compass. Here too, we are planning a number of initiatives, again not entering into any detail here in this context. But maybe to draw the bottom line, Agora EU and Creative Europe program is not necessarily the place where these different policy issues are treated. They are priorities in the funding, yes, but it's not a political expression.
It's more organizations who are active and who develop programs in these areas which I just mentioned and which you mentioned, which are going to be benefiting from the from funding, hopefully from funding of Creative Europe in the future.
Georg Häusler
Last word, simplification, very important issue and we totally hear your message. Simplification leads to a lot of the oversubscription and the limit of budget leads to a lot of frustration in the sector because the process is difficult as it is. And if then the success rate is only 6%, that's a real issue. And so we are working really on a more specific expression here in order to make this program easier accessible for the organizations. Thank you.
Dankeschön. Und nun übergebe ich das Wort an Frau Lucia Recalde, Referatsleiterin für Agora EU in der DG Connect, und auch Sie haben für fünf Minuten das Wort.
Lucia RECALDE
Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and thanks for this really timely and very insightful discussion and debate that has confirmed the added value of Creative Europe and its twin objectives of cultural linguistic diversity on one hand and competitiveness.
I would like to focus more on the audiovisual and the media part of Creative Europe and let me start by really noting some of the recent achievements of the media program over its 35 years of existence. At the recent Cannes Film Festival, six EU-funded films received awards and concretely a truly European co-production fueled by the Romanian filmmaker Mungiu supported by media got the Palme d'Or. And I think these very good results are also confirmed by the mid-term evaluation of Creative Europe and just let me give you two quick examples. The media strand has effectively promoted the cross-border circulation of works. Media-supported works circulate in seven more countries in cinema than unsupported EU films or series.
But also and very crucially, media has contributed to broadening participation in the European audiovisual ecosystem. Today, 30% of the works that we support are collaborations that involve countries with lower audiovisual capabilities. And this is a significant increase from the 5% under the previous program. So now let me turn to Agora EU that obviously will build on the successes of Creative Europe taking into account some new challenges and looking into how to maximize the effectiveness and added value of our intervention and also simplified for the beneficiaries. So the proposed Agora EU program, you know this very well, brings under a common umbrella our support to culture and cultural heritage, media, audiovisual, video games, protecting shared values and civic engagement.
And this is reflected in the structure of the program. For us, when it comes to the media, our support to audiovisual and news media is more important than ever. Some of you have already mentioned this. For many different reasons, but one important reason is that global non-European digital platforms are challenging the business models of our audiovisual creators, European audiovisual companies, but also of news media outlets, affecting the creation, the distribution, but also the way Europeans are engaging with European content and getting informed. So in view of these challenges, the Commission has proposed a very ambitious media strand that combines continuity on the one hand, but also novelty through two distinct specific objectives.
The first one will promote cultural diversity and competitiveness in the audiovisual, film, TV and video game sectors and the second one, the news objective, will provide for the first time holistic support to news media, protecting media freedom and resilience and tackling disinformation while supporting media literacy. And this will be done in full respect of artistic and editorial freedom. And I would like also to say that the desk will continue to play a crucial role in the implementation of the Agora EU program. Last word to conclude is that as from the European Commission, we remain fully committed to working with the member states, the Council, but also with the Parliament to ensure that Agora EU remains the success that it rightfully deserves to have. Thank you.
Nela Riehl
Vielen Dank. Und nun übergebe ich das Wort an Frau Elena Theodoulou-Charalambous. Entschuldigung, wir haben uns gestern noch gesehen und heute bin ich irgendwie so müde. Leiterin des Referats Europäische und Internationale Angelegenheiten der zyprischen Ratsvorsitz heute für sieben Minuten. Vielen Dank.
Elena Theodoulou-Charalambous
Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and honorable members of the European Parliament, colleagues from the Commission, the European Commission, dear all. It is a pleasure and an honor to be with you today in this committee and hear all these valuable shared reflections and insights. Thank you for the invitation. Allow me to very briefly add the Council's perspective as it is expressed by the partial general approach of the Council. As chair of the negotiations on the new AgoraEU regulation in the Cultural Affairs Committee of the Council, I had the privilege to witness the strong commitment of member states to shaping an ambitious and coherent framework for the years ahead.
Before referring to AgoraEU, let me just highlight a few words about the Creative Europe. Things have been already stated, so I will be very quick and just to say that the existing program addressed fragmentation across national and linguistic borders, strengthened cross-border circulation, co-productions, mobility, professional networks, achievements that no member state alone could have reached. And that is a very powerful message for European collaboration in the spirit of our European project, I believe. I will not go into further details regarding the Creative Europe as they have been shared in this room extensively by the previous speakers. Also, I will not go into depth to say that the success of the Creative Europe also revealed, as has been shared again here, certain structural challenges.
And of course, that is the point where we had the AgoraEU as a response to this, the need for stronger, I suppose, and more coherent European action. In the Council, member states welcomed the new regulation with genuine engagement. After five compromise texts and intensive negotiations across culture, media, and fundamental rights, we reached a partial general approach that preserves a balanced architecture while strengthening strategic coherence. And this is the point where I would like to thank the Commission and the colleagues from the Commission for the constructive cooperation and engagement throughout the process. Going back to the Council and the discussion in the Cultural Affairs Committee, I would like to say that member states asked for, and we incorporated in the text, a clearer and more comprehensive definition of the cultural and creative sectors.
A clear reference to the intrinsic value of culture and the recognition of the dual nature of culture as both a fundamental expression of shared values and a driver for economic growth.
A Media Plus strand with references to independent productions, co-productions, media freedom and sustainability, stronger recognition of local and regional media, media literacy and democratic resilience, protection of artistic freedom and cultural diversity, the role of Member States in the governance of the programme, explicit integration of fundamental rights including the rights of the child, persons with disabilities and equality, accessibility and better outreach to smaller actors and less represented countries. These are just but a few of the elements that we think that we contributed constructively in the regulation, in the new, in the partial general approach. Of course, these are not technical adjustments. They are political choices. And the new regulation sends a clear political message that Europe sees culture as a public good, as a strategic ecosystem and as a foundation of democratic cohesion.
We consider the text of the partial general approach to be a balanced and constructive basis for the forthcoming negotiations. Let me close with a symbolic reflection. Creative Europe strengthens European cultural creation, mobility, cooperation and multilingualism. It shows that Europe achieves more together than any Member State alone. AgoraEU goes a step further.
It brings culture, media and democratic participation into a single coherent framework. It recognises that cultural expression, trustworthy information and democratic engagement are interconnected elements of the European public space. If Creative Europe projected Europe's cultural voice across border, AgoraEU revitalises Europe's democratic agora. It has been stated before, echoing the ancient Greek idea of agora, of a vibrant public sphere where citizens gather to deliberate, to question and to build their shared destiny. And that is the message we send today, that Europe invests not only in its cultural vitality, but also through culture, we can enhance democratic resilience and societal cohesion.
Thank you so much, it's been a wonderful experience to hear you all sharing your very constructive ideas and thoughts.
Nela Riehl
Vielen herzlichen Dank, das kann ich nur zurückgeben. Wir sind jetzt am Ende der ersten Runde angelangt. Ein Fotograf wird nun, ich muss mal auf die Uhr schauen, genau von 15:50 bis 16:00 Uhr hier in diesen Raum kommen und ein Gruppenfoto machen. Und da sage ich schon einmal, jetzt müssen wir uns alle in diese Reihe quasi in dieses Kuchenstück hier quetschen, alle einmal aufstehen, dann wird der Fotograf von hier aus fotografieren. Ah, er ist schon da.
Er ist schon da. Okay, wunderbar, dann können wir das jetzt gleich machen. Und danach gibt's eine Kaffeepause draußen. Um 16:20 Uhr geht's weiter. Das heißt, ich bitte Sie alle dann sehr pünktlich hier zurück zu sein.
Und jetzt gehen wir alle in dieses, ja, in dieses Pizzakuchenstück da und werden einmal fotografiert.
Please everybody stay where you are, standing up, so everybody goes to the middle row. You stay together, standing up, and the photographer will take the picture from here, please.
Speaker 44
I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of Croatia, Radovan Fuchs. I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of Portugal, Tiago Brandão Rodrigues. I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of France, Jean-Michel Blanquer. I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of Italy, Patrizio Bianchi. I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of Spain, Pilar Alegría.
I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of Germany, Anja Karliczek. I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of Austria, Heinz Faßmann. I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of Belgium, Caroline Désir. I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of Bulgaria, Nikolay Denkov. I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of Cyprus, Prodromos Prodromou.
I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of Czechia, Robert Plaga. I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of Denmark, Jesper Petersen. I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of Estonia, Liina Kersna. I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of Finland, Li Andersson. I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of Greece, Niki Kerameus.
I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of Hungary, Miklós Kásler. I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of Ireland, Norma Foley. I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of Latvia, Anita Muižniece. I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania, Jurgita Šiugždinienė. I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of Luxembourg, Claude Meisch.
I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of Malta, Justyne Caruana. I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of the Netherlands, Ingrid van Engelshoven. I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of Poland, Przemysław Czarnek. I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of Romania, Sorin Cîmpeanu. I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of Slovakia, Branislav Gröhling.
I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of Sweden, Anna Ekström. I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of Croatia, Radovan Fuchs. I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of Portugal, Tiago Brandão Rodrigues. I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of France, Jean-Michel Blanquer. I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of Italy, Patrizio Bianchi.
I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of Spain, Pilar Alegría. I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of Germany, Anja Karliczek. I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of Austria, Heinz Faßmann. I'm also very pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Science of the Republic of Belgium, Caroline Désir.
Speaker 46
This is a very good turnout and it shows the importance of the topic we are going to discuss today. The European Education Area is a key priority for the European Parliament and for the Committee on Culture and Education. We believe that education is the foundation of our society and our economy. It is the key to personal development, social inclusion, and economic growth. The European Education Area aims to make it easier for students and teachers to move across borders, to improve the quality of education, and to make education more inclusive.
We have a very full agenda today. We will start with a keynote speech from the Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Iliana Ivanova. Then we will have two panel discussions. The first panel will focus on the progress made so far in achieving the European Education Area. The second panel will focus on the challenges and opportunities for the future.
I'm looking forward to a very productive and interesting discussion. Before we start, I would like to give the floor to the Chair of the Committee on Culture and Education, Sabine Verheyen.
Thank you very much. Good morning, colleagues. It's a great pleasure to see you all here in Brussels. As the Chair of the CULT Committee, I'm very happy that we can have this exchange of views with our colleagues from the national parliaments. The European Education Area is not just a project of the European institutions.
It's a project that needs to be implemented on the ground, in our schools, universities, and vocational training centers. And for that, we need the close cooperation of the national parliaments. We need to share our experiences, our best practices, and also our concerns. The European Education Area is about creating a common space for education in Europe. It's about making sure that our diplomas are recognized across borders, that our students can easily spend a semester abroad, and that our teachers can learn from each other.
But it's also about making sure that education is accessible to everyone, regardless of their background. We have made some progress in the last few years, but there is still a lot of work to be done. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us how important digital education is, but it has also shown us the digital divide that still exists in Europe. We need to make sure that all our students have access to high-quality digital education. We also need to focus on the green transition and how education can help us achieve our climate goals.
I'm very much looking forward to hearing your views on these and other topics. Thank you very much for being here today.
Thank you very much, Sabine. And now I would like to give the floor to Commissioner Iliana Ivanova. Commissioner, the floor is yours.
Speaker 46
Thank you very much, Chair. Honorable members of the European Parliament, honorable members of the national parliaments, ladies and gentlemen. It is a great pleasure for me to be here today and to discuss the future of the European Education Area with you. Education is one of the most powerful tools we have to shape our future. It is the key to a more prosperous, more inclusive, and more resilient Europe.
The European Education Area is our vision for a Europe where high-quality education and training are available to all. A Europe where learning across borders is the norm, not the exception. A Europe where our education systems are fit for the digital and green transitions. Since the launch of the European Education Area in 2020, we have made significant progress. We have adopted a number of key initiatives, such as the European Universities initiative, the Erasmus+ program, and the Digital Education Action Plan.
We have also seen a strong commitment from the Member States to work together to achieve our common goals. However, we know that there is still a long way to go. The mid-term review of the European Education Area, which we published last year, showed that while we are on the right track, we need to step up our efforts in some areas. One of the key challenges we face is the teacher shortage. Many Member States are struggling to attract and retain qualified teachers.
This is a serious problem that affects the quality of education for our children. We need to make the teaching profession more attractive and to provide teachers with the support they need.
Good morning, everyone. I'm very happy to welcome you to this interparliamentary committee meeting on the European Education Area. I'm very happy to see so many of you here today. We have representatives from 21 national parliaments and 25 chambers. This is a very good turnout and it shows the importance of the topic we are going to discuss today.
The European Education Area is a key priority for the European Union. It is about making sure that all young people in Europe have access to high-quality education and training, regardless of their background or where they live. It is also about making sure that our education systems are fit for the future and that they can help us to meet the challenges of the digital and green transitions. Today, we are going to have a chance to discuss the progress that has been made so far in developing the European Education Area. We are also going to have a chance to hear from the European Commission about their plans for the future.
And most importantly, we are going to have a chance to hear from you, the representatives of the national parliaments. Your input is essential to the success of the European Education Area. You are the ones who are closest to the people in your countries and you know what the challenges and opportunities are. I'm looking forward to a very productive and interesting discussion today. Before we start, I would like to give the floor to the representative of the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
Sweden has made education a priority for its presidency and I'm very happy that they are here with us today. So, without further ado, I give the floor to the Swedish Presidency.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. It's a pleasure to be here today and to represent the Swedish Presidency. As you said, education is a key priority for our presidency. We believe that education is the foundation of our society and that it is essential for our future prosperity. The European Education Area is a very important initiative and we are fully committed to its success.
We believe that it can help us to improve the quality and inclusiveness of our education systems and to make them more resilient to future challenges. During our presidency, we have been working on a number of initiatives related to the European Education Area. For example, we have been working on the development of a European strategy for universities. We have also been working on the implementation of the European Skills Agenda. And we have been working on the promotion of mobility for students and teachers.
We believe that these initiatives are essential for the development of the European Education Area. We are also very happy to see the progress that has been made so far. The European Education Area is no longer just a vision, it is becoming a reality. However, there is still a lot of work to be done. We need to continue to work together to make sure that the European Education Area is a success.
We need to make sure that it is inclusive and that it benefits all young people in Europe. And we need to make sure that it is fit for the future. I'm looking forward to hearing your views on the European Education Area today. Your input is very important to us and we will take it into account in our work. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much for your presentation. I now give the floor to the European Commission.
Thank you, Madam Chair. It's a pleasure to be here today and to discuss the European Education Area with you. The European Education Area is a key priority for the Commission. We believe that it is essential for the future of Europe. As you know, the Commission adopted a communication on the European Education Area in 2020.
This communication set out a vision for the European Education Area and a number of key initiatives. Since then, we have been working hard to implement these initiatives. We have made a lot of progress, but there is still a lot of work to be done.
Nela Riehl
May I ask you again to please take your seats so we can start over again? Wir kommen nun zu unserer... Sorry, I'm switching into German again. Wir kommen nun zu unserer zweiten Podiumsdiskussion über Erasmus+ und das Europäische Solidaritätskorps. Unsere Redner für diese Podiumsdiskussion werden Herr Bogdan Zdrojewski, CULT-Berichterstatter für den Vorschlag Erasmus+ während des laufenden Programmzeitraums von 2021 bis 2027 und des Vorschlags für 2028 bis 2034 sein, und Frau Susanne Schlak-Glavak, CULT-Berichterstatterin für das Europäische Solidaritätskorps 2021 bis 2027.
Frau Glavak wird gleich hier sein. Beginnen tut Herr Zdrojewski und Sie haben für fünf Minuten oder etwas länger, tatsächlich sagen wir sechs Minuten, das Wort.
Bogdan Andrzej Zdrojewski
Thank you, thank you very much. I will speak Polish. Chciałem wszystkich państwa bardzo serdecznie pozdrowić i bardzo się cieszę, że będę mógł powiedzieć o programie Erasmus+, na jakim jest etapie. Czerpiemy ogromną dumę z tego programu. Wiemy, że jest jednym z najlepszych.
Natomiast teraz to, co najważniejsze, to chciałem państwa poinformować, na jakim jesteśmy etapie. Otóż bez wątpienia program Erasmus+ jest flagowym programem naszej komisji, Komisji Kultury. Cieszy się wielką popularnością nie tylko oczywiście na komisji, ale w całej Europie. Naszym zadaniem jest dalsze usprawnianie tego programu, wspieranie najważniejszych inicjatyw oraz zapewnienie im odpowiedniego finansowania. Od czasu uruchomienia tego programu, przypomnę, był to 1987 rok, Erasmus+ stał się przykładem europejskiego sukcesu.
Skorzystało z niego do tego momentu blisko 17 milionów osób, przede wszystkim młodych osób. Zdaniem uczestników korzyści płynące z programu zdecydowanie wykraczają poza rozwój edukacyjny. Stwarza ten program możliwości rozwoju osobistego, ale także wzmacnia tożsamość europejską, wspiera poczucie wspólnego obywatelstwa i rozumienie międzykulturowe.
Europa potrzebuje ludzi posiadających umiejętności i kompetencje, te, które są niezbędne i do życia, i do pracy. Bardzo ważne jest, aby budować zrównoważoną, odporną i cyfrową gospodarkę, a w tym młodzi ludzie dobrze wykształceni są nam niezbędni. Program musi pozostawać dostępny dzięki dalszemu angażowaniu większej liczby osób o mniejszych szansach, reagowaniu na zmieniające się potrzeby obywateli. Chcemy, aby program był jeszcze szerszy niż do tej pory. Aby uzyskać pełny obraz potrzeb związanych z przyszłością programu, przeprowadziliśmy pięć sesji konsultacyjnych.
Wzięły w nich udział agencje narodowe, rozmaite instytucje, beneficjenci, organizacje reprezentujące sektory edukacji, szkolnictwa wyższego, szkoleń, młodzieży, sportu i NGOsów. Konsultacje te okazały się niezwykle wartościowe, dlatego już dziś chciałem wszystkim bardzo podziękować za udział w tych konsultacjach. Szczególne podziękowania dla agencji narodowych, które w państwach członkowskich odpowiadają za wdrożenia tego programu. Uważnie monitorowaliśmy także prace w Radzie. Skończyły się przygotowania własnego stanowiska i cieszymy się z tego, że mamy tu duże porozumienie.
Budżet programu. Bardzo ważne jest powiększenie tego budżetu tak, aby większa ilość studentów mogła z niego skorzystać i mam dobre wiadomości. Pamiętają państwo, że budżet do tej pory wynosił 20, niecałe 27 miliardów euro. Teraz nasza propozycja uzyskała akceptację na poziomie ponad 47 miliardów euro. Jest to prawie dwa razy tyle, ile było w poprzedniej perspektywie.
W obecnej perspektywie finansowej wiedzieliśmy, że nie wszyscy chętni mogą zmieścić się w tym programie. Mam nadzieję, że następna perspektywa będzie pod tym względem korzystniejsza dla młodych ludzi. Jedną z kluczowych kwestii jest też fakt, że nowy program Erasmus+ stanowi połączenie dwóch dotychczasowych odrębnych programów: programu Erasmus+ i Europejskiego Korpusu Solidarności. W związku z tym w moim raporcie zaproponowałem też wyraźne wyodrębnienie trzech sektorów: sektora edukacji i szkoleń, sektora młodzieży i wolontariatu oraz sektora sportu. Zaproponowałem również określenie budżetów sektorowych oraz minimalnych udziałów procentowych dla każdego z nich.
Wydaje się, że ten podział powinien satysfakcjonować wszystkich. Wiemy, że najtrudniej dzieli się budżet, ale już dziś ważne jest, aby osiągnąć cel pewnej równowagi. Należy też podkreślić, że wszystkie, podkreślam wszystkie grupy otrzymają znacząco więcej środków, niż było to w poprzedniej perspektywie. Proponujemy również poprawki wzmacniające zasadę europejskiej wartości dodanej. Przywracamy właściwą równowagę pomiędzy podstawowymi celami programu a nowymi priorytetami związanymi z konkurencyjnością.
Jeśli chodzi o bardziej problematyczne tematy, to tylko wspomnę, że identyfikuję trzy obszary: kwestie stypendiów, przede wszystkim w strategicznych sektorach, synergię i transfery środków pomiędzy programami.
I na koniec bardzo serdecznie chciałem podziękować i poprosić, abyście państwo walczyli także na swoich podwórkach ministerialnych o to, aby na posiedzeniu Rady Europejskiej zatwierdzić budżet, być może go powiększyć. Chcę jednocześnie podkreślić, że będziemy walczyć o jeszcze lepszą synergię, mniejsze obciążenia biurokratyczne, łatwiejszy dostęp do programu i bardzo dobrą geografię programu. Bardzo serdecznie dziękuję.
Nela Riehl
Ganz herzlichen Dank. Ich erteile nun Frau Glavak das Wort, wieder fünf bis sechs Minuten bitte.
Sunčana Glavak
Yes, of course. Thank you very much. Dear colleagues, dear guests, the European Solidarity Corps is one of the European Union's most successful programs for young people. It is not just a volunteering program, it is an investment in people, in social cohesion and in the European identity. Its importance today goes beyond the traditional framework of volunteering and has a clear strategic dimension.
The European Commission has highlighted that Europe needs not only people with technical and digital skills, but also we need active citizens who contribute to a more resilient, engaged and inclusive society. Through volunteering, non-formal learning and solidarity activities, young people develop important life and professional skills, develop a sense of responsibility and gain experience that encourage them to take an active role in society. Such experience complement formal education and contribute to a stronger social capital, greater social inclusion and increased participation of young people in our society. When we speak about European competitiveness, security and resilience, we often focus on infrastructure, technology and of course defense. But we must also invest in solidarity, active citizenship and the inclusion of young people in society.
This is precisely what the European Solidarity Corps delivers. The results of program speak for themselves. As many as 93% of participants report that their participation helped them develop skills and self-confidence, while 80% believe that their projects had a positive impact on their local community, and that is huge. These are not abstract indicators. They are tangible results that show how European funding change lives and strengthen communities across Europe.
It is particularly important to emphasize that the program reaches young people who need support the most. A significant number of participants have faced unemployment, mental health challenges or difficult life circumstances. For many of them, the European Solidarity Corps has not only been an opportunity to help others, but also an opportunity for personal development, greater self-confidence and finding their own paths in life. The program also has a strong employability dimension. More than 40% of young people apply because they want to gain professional experience, while almost two-thirds had little or no work experience before joining.
For this reason, the European Solidarity Corps represents an important bridge between education and of course the labor market. At the time when Europe is facing growing social divisions, declining trust in institutions and increasing challenges to democracy, volunteering and civic engagement have an added value. They strengthen the sense of belonging, mutual understanding and shared responsibility. The European Union, you know that, is built on solidarity between its citizens and Member States, and the European Solidarity Corps turns this value into concrete action. That is why I believe that within the new Multiannual Financial Framework, we must ensure stable and ambitious funding for programs targeting young people, and my colleague Zdrojewski knows that.
If we want this program to reach even more young people, young Europeans, we must also provide adequate financial resources. The Commission has proposed merging Erasmus+ and the European Solidarity Corps into a single program for the period 2028-2034 with a total budget of 40.8 billion euros. However, the European Parliament has made it clear that this level of ambition is not sufficient. In our position on the new MFF, we called for a budget of 47.4 billion euros for Erasmus+ because investment in young people's skills, mobility and solidarity should not be seen as a cost, but as an investment in Europe's competitiveness, resilience and of course democratic future. At a time of growing geopolitical tensions, disinformation and social polarization, programs that bring together young people from different countries and social backgrounds are more important than ever for preserving European unity.
If we want a Europe that is competitive, democratic and connected, we must continue to invest in programs that give young people the opportunity to learn, help others, take responsibility and build a shared European future. In my opinion, the European Solidarity Corps is precisely such a program. Thank you very much.
Nela Riehl
Vielen Dank, Frau Glavak. Wir werden nun ausnahmsweise die Reihenfolge der Redner ein wenig ändern und der Vertreterin der zyprischen Ratspräsidentschaft zuerst das Wort erteilen, da sie dann sehr bald aufbrechen muss zu einer Veranstaltung der Ratspräsidentschaft. Sie werden mir sicherlich zustimmen, dass es interessant sein wird, die Ansichten der Vertreterin der Ratspräsidentschaft auf jeden Fall zu hören, da der Rat natürlich eine sehr wichtige Rolle bei den Verhandlungen über die MFR-Programme spielt. Und damit erteile ich nun Frau Katami von der zyprischen Ratspräsidentschaft für fünf Minuten das Wort. Bitte schön, Sie haben das Wort.
Katami
Thank you very much, Madam Chair, dear members of the European Parliament, ladies and gentlemen. I'm very pleased to be here today representing the Cyprus Presidency. As the chair of the Education Committee of the Council, it has been a privilege to lead the negotiations on the Erasmus+ post-2027 regulation together with my dedicated team.
It is an honor to speak with you today about our collective vision for the program. Erasmus Plus is undisputedly Europe's most emblematic initiative, it is our Union's flagship brand. Eurobarometer surveys consistently confirm that citizens view it as one of the Union's greatest achievements, frequently ranking it fourth overall after free movement, peace, and the Euro. For nearly four decades, this program has been much more than an academic exchange. It has defined what it truly means to be European.
It has been a life-changing experience for more than 16 million people, offering them the chance to study, to train, or volunteer abroad. Through these experiences, young people acquire new perspectives and develop the skills that help them land their first jobs. Following our intensive work this semester, we are confident that future Erasmus generations will continue to thrive. The future program must remain a steadfast investment in people, innovation, and high-quality lifelong learning, spanning everything from learning mobility and youth initiatives to volunteering, institutional cooperation, and talent development. The Cyprus Presidency worked tirelessly on this file.
Our goal was to guide negotiations towards a text that commands the broadest possible support, and we have achieved exactly that. Together with the Member States, we have shaped a carefully crafted compromise that represents a well-balanced, commonly agreed view on the file's most critical issues. A partial general approach was reached by the education ministers in the Council on the 12th of May, which secures the mandate for the negotiations with the European Parliament. Our approach centers the regulation in the European Education Area, our concrete framework for cooperation towards 2030, while strongly reinforcing our Union values. Furthermore, by aligning its objectives with the implementation of the Union of Skills, we ensure that the program supports citizens at every stage of life.
Whether through school education, vocational training, higher education, adult learning, or upskilling and reskilling, the text empowers Europeans to thrive in a changing and demanding society. The Council position strikes an excellent balance on key issues raised by the Member States. Specifically, we have worked hard to safeguard the legacy of the European Solidarity Corps initiatives within the post-2027 program, recognizing the vital importance of solidarity and volunteering actions. We have also enhanced the visibility of all sectors covered by the program, ensuring that the youth and sports sectors receive the prominence they deserve. Another cornerstone of our proposal is the association of third countries.
The text strongly supports the program's international dimension, promoting learning mobility, cooperation, and policy dialogue in Europe and beyond, while strictly ensuring respect for Union values and the protection of the EU's interests. Alongside this, we have strengthened provisions to optimize synergies with other Union programs and to deepen our commitment to inclusion and accessibility, which guided our work from day one. The Council's approach introduces a different perspective on the scholarships initiative originally proposed by the Commission. To broaden their scope, these are now designated as talent and excellence development opportunities. Our goal is to ensure that these opportunities enrich the program without altering its core focus on learning mobility or disproportionately impacting the funding of other initiatives.
To achieve this, we advocate for leveraging synergies with other instruments and increasing the involvement of businesses and industry stakeholders. This approach will allow us to develop and retain homegrown talent while continuing to attract talented individuals to the Union, expanding the scope to include joint study programs and other transnational initiatives. Overall, the Council stands ready and fully prepared to enter into discussions with the European Parliament. I am certain that once the Parliament delivers its final position, the co-legislators will work constructively toward our shared goal: a robust, future-proof program built on the European principles of inclusion, equity, and opportunities for all. Thank you all for your attention, and I'm confident that the insights and perspectives shared today will inspire a truly fruitful debate on the future of this program.
Thank you very much.
Nela Riehl
Herzlichen Dank und damit kommen wir dann zur Debatte, so wie vorhin werden wir es so haben, dass immer zwei Minuten Redezeit zugeteilt werden. Ich bitte Sie wieder sich an diese Redezeit zu halten. Wir starten wieder mit Mitgliedern der nationalen Parlamente und dann ein Mitglied des Europäischen Parlamentes. Und wir beginnen wieder mit Mr. O'Sullivan aus Irland.
Christopher O'Sullivan
Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh, merci beaucoup, Madame. And I just believe that I suppose we need more ambitious funding programs such as the 60 billion rather than the 40 billion as has been called for by the European Student Network and by university alliances. I also think we need to guarantee a baseline funding allocation for higher education, youth organizations, and sporting groups. And for the focus not just to be on university students, but also to help remove the many barriers that are there for young people, especially those from working-class, rural, and marginalized backgrounds, which we all see across our countries. So we really need to have a proper funding, as I say, for youth organizations and sport organizations, and certainly to have a dedicated percentage funding targeting sports, which I think needs to be increased because sports is something that's very much uniting of people, just the same as in a previous discussion we spoke about music, which is a huge uniter of peoples and transverses all languages as well and borders.
So yeah, I think that just needs to be a very conscious focus for us, and we definitely do need more funding than what has been allocated. Thank you.
Vielen Dank und Mrs. Carvalho aus Portugal.
null Carvalho
Obrigada, senhora presidente, senhoras e senhores deputados e membros dos parlamentos nacionais. O programa Erasmus+ representa uma das mais bem-sucedidas políticas europeias no domínio da educação, da juventude e da construção de uma verdadeira cidadania europeia. Ao longo das últimas décadas, tem proporcionado a muitos estudantes a oportunidade de estudar e viver noutros países, alargando assim os horizontes e promovendo uma visão mais aberta, plural e solidária da Europa. Portugal é um dos países com maior participação per capita no programa Erasmus+. Cerca de 30.000 estudantes portugueses fazem mobilidade académica por ano e Portugal recebe cerca de 18.000 estudantes estrangeiros para o mesmo efeito.
Em 2024, Portugal registou um crescimento de cerca de 18% face a 2023. O destino são sobretudo a Espanha, a Itália, a Alemanha, a França, os Países Baixos e a Polónia. O Erasmus+ não é apenas um programa de mobilidade académica. É acima de tudo um instrumento de transformação pessoal e coletiva. Dos ex-participantes, cerca de 92% afirmaram que esta experiência transformou as suas competências transversais.
Nela Riehl
Please, may I just stop you a little bit because there's, okay, there's problems with the Czech interpretation I hear. So maybe if you wait one minute and we will try to fix it. Sorry for the interruption, now you can go on. Thank you.
null Carvalho
Cerca de 92% dos seus participantes afirmaram que a experiência melhorou as suas competências transversais, 84% confirmaram que melhoraram as suas competências linguísticas e 74% as suas competências profissionais. Ou seja, segundo os ex-participantes, sentem-se mais preparados para os desafios de um mercado de trabalho cada vez mais global e exigente. Mas o impacto do Erasmus+ vai ainda mais longe. Ao promover o contacto entre diferentes culturas, sistemas de ensino e realidades sociais, contribui para o reforço da coesão europeia, para a valorização da diversidade e para a construção de uma identidade comum assente nos valores da democracia, da liberdade e da cooperação. O Erasmus+ pós-27 deve, por isso, ser cada vez mais um programa inclusivo, permitindo que estudantes de diferentes contextos socioeconómicos possam beneficiar desta experiência transformadora.
Para isso, é essencial continuar a reforçar o financiamento, simplificar os processos e apoiar de forma concreta aqueles que enfrentam maiores dificuldades. Senhoras e senhores, investir no Erasmus+ é investir no futuro da Europa. É apostar numa geração mais qualificada, mais consciente e mais preparada para construir sociedades mais justas, mais inovadoras e mais coesas. Muito obrigada.
Sabrina Repp
Vielen Dank, vielen Dank auch für den Austausch, den ich als sehr wertvoll empfinde, weil wir, glaube ich, gemeinsam eine Mission haben, nämlich gemeinsam das Erasmus-Programm zu stärken und gemeinsam auch mit den Mitgliedern der nationalen Parlamente daran mitzuwirken, dass wir tatsächlich ein konkretes Angebot für junge Menschen in Europa haben, und darum geht es am Ende. Deswegen ist mir nochmal wichtig zu sagen, und der Kollege aus Irland hat es schon angesprochen, dass die Forderung, die wir gestellt haben oder die Forderungen, die es auch gibt, von 60 Milliarden, also wirklich ein ambitioniertes Budget auf den Weg zu bringen, da freuen wir uns natürlich auch in den Verhandlungen mit der Kommission, mit dem Rat und mit dem Parlament auch auf Ihre Unterstützung am Ende noch herbeizuführen, dass wir tatsächlich auch eine Steigerung des Budgets für Erasmus+ herbeiführen können.
Da setzen wir natürlich auf die Zusammenarbeit und würden uns da natürlich freuen. Der Kollege aus Irland hat auch angesprochen, dass vor allem Erasmus+ inklusiver werden muss. Was bedeutet das konkret? Dass wir Zugangsvoraussetzungen senken müssen und tatsächlich daran mitwirken müssen, dass eben die Beiträge, die Studierende, die Schülerinnen, die Auszubildende erhalten, auch entsprechend die Kosten abdecken, die die Jugendlichen auch während ihres Auslandsaufenthalts haben. Und da sehen wir noch deutlichen Bedarf auch nach oben.
Und es ist nicht getan, indem wir tatsächlich strategische Stipendien auf den Weg bringen. Und die Debatte hatten wir heute Vormittag auch schon, wo es wieder nur einer exklusiven Gruppe an jungen Menschen ermöglicht wird, diese Erfahrung zu machen, sondern Erasmus+ muss ein inklusives Programm sein, muss ein Programm sein, was eben auf die Füße gestellt ist von Beteiligung und von Zugängen von vielen. Außerdem ist es wichtig, dass wir ein klares Earmarking in den einzelnen Bereichen haben, also im Jugendbereich, im Sportbereich, das wurde auch bereits angesprochen. Das, was offengelassen wurde vonseiten der Kommission, müssen wir gemeinsam mit auch Sicherstellungen mit konkreten Prozentsätzen füllen. Auch da hoffen wir auf Ihre Unterstützung bei den Verhandlungen.
Um einen letzten Punkt noch zu bringen, ist es sehr, sehr wichtig, dass wir die Freiwilligendienste, die jetzt in Erasmus+ integriert werden, ihren Kern erhalten. Das bedeutet eben auch, dass sie ein klares Budget erhalten. Das bedeutet aber auch, dass sie nicht in der Gemengelage von Erasmus+ untergehen dürfen. Das bedeutet, dass wir schauen müssen, wie wir die Freiwilligendienste, wie wir zum Beispiel die Entsendeorganisationen und die Hostingorganisationen noch besser unterstützen können, wie wir auch Freiwilligendienste in der Europäischen Union als Flagships, wie es auch Frau Glavak angesprochen hat, auch ihren Wert erhalten. Und das wird auch noch eine Herausforderung sein, und da setzen wir auch gemeinsam auf Ihre Unterstützung und würden uns da natürlich freuen, gemeinsam auch mit der Kommission da entsprechende Positionen zu vertreten.
Dankeschön.
Helledie
Danke, und Herr Helledie aus Dänemark.
Tak. I think we need to acknowledge in Denmark that the Erasmus+ is one of the founding principles of the European Union and that it probably is the most successful program seen from a Danish perspective within the European Union, because it actually contributes with what we want to achieve here, creating the opportunity through education, training, and mobility to learn among other Europeans. The program continues to create enormous value, and new initiatives such as Center of Vocational Excellence, Teachers' Academies, and international partnership strengthens the value and also contributes to European competitiveness. However, this should not prevent us from improving the program. First, we must broaden the participation.
Erasmus+ still benefits the most privileged groups most effectively. We need stronger participation from vocational educations, apprenticeship, and professional higher education, ensuring that more Europeans can experience the opportunity that Europe offers. Secondly, Denmark strongly support the further simplification. Administrative requirements, reporting obligations, and EU systems are simply too complex, particularly when it comes to newcomers and smaller organizations. Third, we must focus on more quality and impact.
Success rates, especially for development projects KA2, are too low. Significant resources are spent on applications, and we need greater emphasis on meaningful outcome and knowledge sharing within these programs. Finally, small-scale programs such as those including small volunteering sports clubs should have simpler and more decentralized administration than they do right now, and program rules should be implemented more consistently across EU member states. By making Erasmus+ more inclusive, accessible, and impactful, we can ensure that it continues to strengthen both European competitiveness and European citizenship.
And with this being said, I think a final comment needs to be put down on that we need a narrow focus within a program like Erasmus+. Erasmus should not be used as a tool to solve a variety of different issues and the feeling of a commissioner who wants to push forward some sort of topic that they want to achieve right now. We need to keep it focused because this is the way that we maximize the positive impact Erasmus+ has within the Union, bringing people together, and that's the key here. Thank you.
Berky
Děkuji. Já neřeknu nic nového, jen podpořím ten trend, který tu již byl nastolen. Erasmus je rozhodně pilířem budování evropského vzdělávacího prostoru a je to bezesporu úspěšný program. Takže navýšení hodnotíme jako pozitivní, ale v souladu s kolegy já by si přál, aby to navýšení bylo ještě vyšší. A to nám umožní větší šíři toho programu a to především právě podpořit osoby z prostředí socioekonomicky znevýhodněného, kratší programy, dobrovolnictví, ale také právě využít aspektu těch výměnných pobytů jako motivačního prvku k celoživotnímu učení, tedy nebavíme se jen o studujících na vysokých školách.
A kromě toho vzdělávání totiž Erasmus obecně otevírá dveře do Evropy, do jiné kultury, do společnosti, prohlubuje občanství a lidství. A tyto dveře nemohou být otevřeny jen zajištěným vysokoškolákům, nemohou být otevřeny jen těm, kteří mají jiné možnosti, musíme otevírat právě především těm, kteří jiné možnosti nemají.
Hannes Heide
Danke, geschätzte Kolleginnen und Kollegen. Erstens, wir wollen im neuen mehrjährigen Finanzrahmen doppelt so vielen europäischen Bürgerinnen und Bürgern die Möglichkeit geben, an Erasmus+ teilzunehmen. Und zweitens, unser Ziel muss es bleiben, dass jede Europäerin, jeder Europäer mindestens einmal im Leben die Möglichkeit hat, an Erasmus+ teilzunehmen. Ich möchte auf das Solidaritätskorps eingehen, weil auch innerhalb von Erasmus+ muss es eine starke und sichtbare Säule bleiben, weil nämlich Nachfrage und die Zahl der Bewerberinnen und Bewerber in den letzten Jahren stark angestiegen ist und daher ist es zu begrüßen, dass die Mittel für den Austausch von Freiwilligen in der nächsten Förderperiode deutlich aufgestockt werden sollen. Und die Aufteilung zwischen Freiwilligentätigkeit und humanitärer Hilfe liegt derzeit bei 94 % zu 6 %.
Und angesichts von Einsätzen bei Naturkatastrophen wie Unwettern, Hochwasser oder Waldbränden in den Mitgliedstaaten bin ich der Überzeugung, dass wir das Programm stärker auch auf Bedürfnisse in den Regionen ausweiten sollten und anpassen an die Bereitschaft und Freiwilligendienste, wie zum Beispiel bei den Freiwilligen Feuerwehren. Damit erreichen wir auch den ländlichen Raum, wo Europa nicht so stark spürbar ist wie in den urbanen Zentren. Und ich denke auch daran, dass wir uns überlegen sollten, an Sportvereinen auch die Möglichkeit zu geben, dass europäische Freiwillige dort tätig sein können. Und wir könnten die Programmlinie auch stärker in Einklang mit der Strategie für eine europäische Vorsorgeunion bringen. Junge Menschen nehmen für eine gewisse Zeit ihres Lebens diesen Dienst an der Gesellschaft, an der Gemeinschaft an.
Oft wissen aber ihre Arbeitgeber gar nicht, was das europäische Solidaritätskorps ist und welche Möglichkeiten es gibt und dass es Teil einer Ausbildung sein könnte. Daher sollten wir auch sicherstellen, dass Arbeitgeber diese Erfahrung anerkennen und auch Zertifikate außerhalb des Jugend- und Bildungssektors einen Wert bekommen. Und rechtlich anerkannte Qualifikationsnachweise wären ebenfalls ein Mittel, diese Dienste auch stärker attraktiv zu machen.
Und vor allen Dingen im Bereich Katastrophenschutz, Zivilschutz, Krisenmanagement, aber auch im Bereich der Pflege können wir diese erworbenen Erfahrungen nutzen und sie bringen einen großen Mehrwert für die Beschäftigung. Und das sollten wir auch berücksichtigen beim Europäischen Solidaritätskorps. Dankeschön.
Vilkauskas
Gerbiama pirmininke, gerbiami kolegos, Erasmus+ Lietuvoje jau seniai nėra vien studentų mainų programa. Ji apima mokyklas, profesinį mokymą, suaugusiųjų švietimą, jaunimo ir sporto veiklas, nes vien per pastaruosius metus mobilumo veiklose dalyvavo daugiau nei 18 000 žmonių, o programa pasiekė visas Lietuvos apskritis. Ypač svarbu, kad ji vis labiau įtraukia regionus ir mažiau galimybių turinčius asmenis. Bet vis dėlto matome ir iššūkių. Augančios pragyvenimo bei kelionių išlaidos gali mažinti prieinamumą.
Todėl tikimės, kad naujuoju finansiniu laikotarpiu finansavimas bus pritaikytas prie realių kaštų, o administracinės procedūros taps paprastesnės ir prieinamesnės organizacijoms. Kalbant apie Europos solidarumo korpusą, Lietuva yra tarp aktyvių programos dalyvių. Mūsų organizacijos sėkmingai priima tarptautinius savanorius, o Lietuvos jaunimas aktyviai įsitraukia į savanorystės ir vietos bendruomenių projektus. Ši programa stiprina pilietiškumą, solidarumą ir jaunų žmonių lyderystę. Taip pat matėme, kaip solidarumo iniciatyvos gali prisidėti prie atsako į geopolitines krizes, padedant integruoti nuo karo Ukrainoje pasitraukusius žmones.
Todėl palaikome siekį stiprinti šias programas ateityje ir mūsų lūkestis aiškus: pakankamas finansavimas, mažesnė administracinė našta, didesnis prieinamumas regionams ir daugiau galimybių jaunimui, švietimo bei bendruomenių organizacijoms aktyviai dalyvauti kuriant stipresnę ir atsparesnę Europą. Dėkoju.
Nela Riehl
Vielen Dank, auf Deutsch dauert das manchmal ein bisschen länger, bis die Übersetzung dann fertig ist. Wir haben immer sehr, sehr lange Sätze. Frau Aguiar aus Portugal.
Cláudia Monteiro de Aguiar
Muito obrigada, senhora presidente, senhores deputados. Portugal reconhece a importância dos programas europeus Erasmus+, Erasmus Plus e o Corpo Europeu de Solidariedade enquanto instrumentos de mobilidade, qualificação, cooperação cultural e aproximação entre os povos europeus. Muitos jovens portugueses beneficiaram destas oportunidades para estudar, trabalhar, adquirir competências e representar Portugal no espaço europeu. Contudo, ao refletirmos sobre o atual quadro financeiro plurianual, importa também analisar alguns desafios que estes programas colocam a vários Estados-Membros, garantindo que os recursos europeus são utilizados com rigor, equilíbrio territorial e utilidade concreta para os cidadãos. Em países como Portugal, onde persistem dificuldades económicas, baixos salários nas camadas jovens e forte emigração qualificada, estes programas não podem transformar-se apenas em mecanismos indiretos de saída permanente de talento nacional.
É fundamental que o próximo quadro financeiro europeu assegure maior equilíbrio entre mobilidade e fixação de jovens nos seus países de origem, promovendo igualmente projetos ligados à inovação, à formação técnica, à cultura nacional e à valorização das identidades europeias.
No caso português, importa ainda garantir que o acesso aos programas europeus não fique concentrado apenas nas grandes universidades, em centros urbanos ou organizações já consolidadas. É essencial reforçar a participação das regiões do interior, das escolas, universidades politécnicas e das escolas profissionais e associações. Por outro lado, devemos assegurar que a cooperação europeia continua a respeitar a diversidade cultural e as identidades nacionais que constituem uma das maiores riquezas da Europa. A Europa será certamente mais forte se respeitar essas diferentes identidades nacionais, valorizar a diversidade cultural dos seus Estados-Membros e investir numa juventude qualificada, livre e preparada para contribuir para o desenvolvimento dos seus próprios países. Muito obrigada.
Palari
Dear Madam Chair, ladies and gentlemen, I come from Romania with good news and bad news. The good news is the following: according to the evaluation conducted in 2024 by the Education Research Unit, the Erasmus program is considered by participants both at national and local level to be the most important European program supporting the education system in Romania. On the bad news is that we are having political leaders that are proposing that all the Erasmus young people that come back home, we should organize a religious ceremony for them and we should exorcise, cast away the demons of globalism and of Europeanism out of these young bodies and young minds. And the second bad news is that at European level, I think we have decreasing number in terms of in the polls of European identity among the European citizens, especially in Romania. And maybe I come from a country that was recently hit by a Russian drone exploding on top of a building in Galati, but I'm really deeply concerned as the president of the Education Committee back home in Romania about the importance of using Erasmus program for improving and increasing European identity among the participants.
What is happening is that exactly the people who are having the lowest level of education, low income, and as well no access to opportunities, they are exactly the ones believing the most that Europe is just a dream and they should rather embrace the East. So therefore, we have a clear concrete proposal, and that is that the Commission proposal is introducing housing support and flexibility in adjusting grants, but does not structurally reform the mechanism for calculating grants. Romania is calling for a dynamic model that includes a European baseline component supplemented by city-specific cost of living adjustments, updated regularly to account for inflation. Otherwise, if we freeze the program for several years, and in Romania and some other countries we have maybe sometimes 10% inflation rate, yeah, I'm finishing, we might end up exactly missing the inclusion part, which is the most critical for the success of the program. Thank you so much.
Nela Riehl
Vielen Dank. Die Geste meines Kollegens bedeutet, bitte sprechen Sie alle etwas langsamer, damit das besser zu übersetzen geht manchmal. Vielen Dank, Bogdan, für den Hinweis. Als Nächstes Herr Kouvelas aus Griechenland.
Kouvelas
Thank you, Chair. Κυρίες και κύριοι συνάδελφοι, και εγώ θα ξεκινήσω με καλά νέα.
Στην Ελλάδα η υλοποίηση των δύο προγραμμάτων έχει επιδείξει εντυπωσιακή δυναμική την προηγούμενη περίοδο 2021 με 25. Τα εθνικά ποσοστά απορρόφησης αγγίζουν το 100% σταθερά, όμως αφορούν μέρος μόνο των πολύ περισσότερων και καλών προτάσεων που υποβάλλονται κάθε φορά. Αυτό σημαίνει ότι ένα πλήθος, ένας μεγάλος αριθμός εξαιρετικών πρωτοβουλιών παραμένει στα χαρτιά επειδή ο διαθέσιμος προϋπολογισμός δεν επαρκεί και δεν μπορεί, δεν φτάνει να ικανοποιήσει τον ενθουσιασμό και τις ιδέες των νέων μας. Άρα λοιπόν καταλαβαίνετε ότι θα ήμασταν θερμοί υποστηρικτές της ενίσχυσης του προϋπολογισμού για το Erasmus Plus αλλά και για το πρόγραμμα Ευρωπαϊκό Σώμα Αλληλεγγύης. Πολύ σημαντική παράμετρος που απαιτεί ενίσχυση είναι και η σύνδεση των πανεπιστημίων μας και των ερευνητικών κέντρων με την αγορά εργασίας και το επιχειρείν.
Η ελληνική προοπτική για την επόμενη προγραμματική περίοδο περιλαμβάνει την ενδυνάμωση της τοπικής δημοκρατίας. Ενισχύουμε σταθερά τα δημοτικά συμβούλια νέων σε πολλούς δήμους της χώρας. Ενισχύουμε την συμπερίληψη και τη γεωγραφία των ευκαιριών. Για μια χώρα με τόσα πολλά νησιά όπως είναι η Ελλάδα, η πιο νησιωτική στην Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση, η συμπερίληψη όπως καταλαβαίνετε αποτελεί εθνική αναγκαιότητα. Έτσι δίνουμε προτεραιότητα στην πρόσβαση νέων από απομακρυσμένες περιοχές, από νησιά και από ορεινές περιοχές έτσι ώστε οι γεωγραφικές ιδιαιτερότητες να μην περιορίζουν τις ευρωπαϊκές ευκαιρίες.
Επενδύουμε επίσης σε ασφαλείς χώρους τόσο φυσικούς όσο και ψηφιακούς για την προστασία των νέων μας από τον διαδικτυακό εκφοβισμό, το cyberbullying, τη ρητορική μίσους και την παραπληροφόρηση. Και βέβαια κάνουμε βήματα σημαντικά για τη διοικητική απλούστευση έτσι ώστε οι νέοι να μην εστιάζουν στην υπέρβαση γραφειοκρατικών εμποδίων αλλά να ασχολούνται με τον κοινωνικό αντίκτυπο αυτών των προγραμμάτων και τη μάθηση. Είναι βέβαιο, κλείνω λέγοντας ότι οι δράσεις αυτές έχουν μεγάλη απήχηση στην κοινωνία, τα προγράμματα αυτά και αποδεικνύουν ότι το ευρωπαϊκό ιδεώδες είναι ζωντανό και ακμάζει. Έτσι λοιπόν δίνοντας χρηματοδότηση και εργαλεία στους νέους μας θα κρατήσουμε και το ιδεώδες ζωντανό και τον ευρωπαϊκό τρόπο ζωής θα προωθήσουμε στο μέλλον. Σας ευχαριστώ.
Marie Mesmeur
Merci Madame la Présidente. Collègues, je voudrais pour commencer rappeler l'histoire du programme Erasmus Plus. Le programme de mobilité des étudiants et enseignants s'inscrit dans une longue histoire européenne. Dès les années 60, les institutions européennes ont encouragé la mobilité des étudiants et des enseignants car ils avaient bien compris que cela renforçait la création...
Marie Mesmeur
Donc dès les années 60, les institutions européennes ont encouragé la mobilité des étudiants et des enseignants car ils avaient bien compris que cela renforçait la création de savoirs, l'apprentissage des langues et la compréhension mutuelle entre les peuples. En 1987, la Communauté économique européenne crée Erasmus en référence à Érasme, philosophe et érudit du XVIe siècle qui a lui-même étudié à travers l'Europe. Le programme a progressivement évolué pour devenir Erasmus Plus en 2014 et ne concerne plus uniquement les citoyens européens.
Aujourd'hui, il constitue l'une des politiques les plus visibles et les plus populaires de l'Union européenne, notamment auprès des jeunes, des familles et du monde éducatif et académique. Il répond à des objectifs à la fois éducatifs, politiques et stratégiques. Élever le niveau de connaissance, certes, mais aussi améliorer l'enseignement et la recherche, renforcer l'influence de l'Union européenne, soutenir la coopération avec les pays voisins, je pense par exemple à Euromed, et préparer les étudiants aux enjeux géopolitiques actuels. Et enfin, à promouvoir certaines valeurs, notamment celle de l'émancipation par le savoir, du partage de la culture, mais également celle de la fraternité, qu'importe l'origine. Nous sommes donc tous ici convaincus de la force de ce modèle.
Pourtant, en France aujourd'hui, le gouvernement d'Emmanuel Macron vient d'attaquer l'ensemble des étudiants internationaux hors Union européenne en multipliant par seize leurs frais d'inscription par rapport aux autres étudiants pour les mêmes enseignements, pour le même diplôme. Cette mesure, sous couvert d'austérité, est bien évidemment raciste et antisociale. Nous nous sommes nombreux en France vent debout contre cette attaque et je les salue ici, les étudiants, les personnels, les syndicats, l'ensemble de la communauté académique et de nombreux députés français. Mais le président Macron et son ministre Philippe Baptiste ont choisi de passer de force par décret pour contraindre les universités qui résistaient jusqu'alors. Ainsi, les étudiants les plus aisés pourront continuer à étudier en France tandis que les plus précaires, eux, en seront exclus.
Pourtant, le programme Erasmus+, notamment dans les objectifs établis pour 2028 à 2034, souhaite et agit justement pour élargir les coopérations internationales et mettre des mesures et instruments en place pour améliorer l'inclusion des publics défavorisés. Ma question est donc la suivante : comment agir depuis le Parlement pour garantir que les politiques d'ouverture et de partage du savoir ne soient pas un outil de ségrégation au sein de certains pays membres ? Car collègues, soyons sûrs que la culture, les savoirs se partagent et grandissent bien au-delà de quelques frontières. Je vous remercie.
Nela Riehl
Vielen Dank, Herr Minchef, Mitglied des Europäischen Parlaments für Renew.
Nikola Minchev
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Sport currently represents 1.9% of the total Erasmus+ budget, despite its clear social and economic relevance. Physical inactivity is estimated to cost the EU around 80.4 billion annually, including direct healthcare costs and lost productivity. Moreover, sport sector directly accounts for around 6 million jobs. So these figures show the importance of sport.
We need to start treating it as a strategic policy field and an investment in Europe's people and future. Good example of an engaging sport initiative is the Bulgarian-led Erasmus+ Sporting Without Waste project that reached around 260,000 participants across several Balkan and European countries. The project combined 180 grassroots sport events with environmental sustainability by promoting zero waste, community engagement and healthier lifestyle. This is exactly what demonstrates the added value of EU-level support. The next program, we need to ensure that sport will be allocated a fair representation both in terms of funding and in access and participation across all EU member states.
Thank you very much.
McGreehan
Thank you, thank you Chair. Ireland is a really strong and committed supporter of Erasmus+. Since its program began, it has transformed thousands of Irish lives and European lives. Funding is absolutely crucial to the current program as it is oversubscribed. Therefore, we do support a substantial uplift in the next cycle.
And with regard to inclusion, too many people are not getting the opportunities.
McGreehan
Apologies. With regard to inclusion, too many people are not getting the opportunities. We know that learners with disabilities, those from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds, and those from rural and regional communities face barriers that the current framework does not remove. If it was more flexible, shorter durations, blended options, maybe adequate supports at staffing, it may help. When it comes to apprenticeships and the FET sector, there is a huge gap, but also a huge opportunity.
These learners represent a huge proportion of young people. Mobility for apprentices requires employer buy-in, wage continuity, and recognition of qualifications across borders. Finally, on rural and regional access, geography should not determine opportunities, and distance causes a huge issue to a huge barrier to participation. Erasmus+ is a beloved and a really effective way to learn. It has been hugely successful.
This next program is an opportunity to improve diversity and increase the number of participants. Thank you.
Speaker 63
Thank you, Ms. Chair, dear MP colleagues. Well, you need to experience European Union to be able to fall in love in European Union. And you need to meet other Europeans to feel the European identity. And the European identity is the among the young generation is the crucial thing to let us believe for the future survival of this institution, of our European Commonwealth. I believe that we all sitting here are fully aware of that right now we're discussing the future survival of European Union.
Well, Erasmus is a brand, is a global brand that I think whole world is jealous about. And if you don't believe me, then ask our friends from the Great Britain how much they miss the Erasmus+. 47 billion, if it comes to budget, is a sweet-bitter information. On one hand, as Mr. Chairman said, it's almost twice the amount that we had previously. But on the other hand, of course, we have incorporated the European Solidarity Corps part to this amount, and on the other hand, prices are rising.
So the only questionable proposal for us in Poland here is the statement of the European Commission. Because on the one hand, European Commission expect from us as the member states to be more responsible for the expenditures of the agencies that manage the programs in our countries. But on the other hand, they want to have a veto right about the nominating people to executive board in these NCs. So I expect European Commission to be for the more for more consequence. Whether they want to be us a member state to be more responsible for expenditure of these funds or be less expenditure less responsible for the for the managing of these programs in our countries.
Thank you very much.
Kouvelas
Thank you very much. I'm so happy to hear that we all seem to agree that inclusiveness is our largest goal for the coming period of Erasmus+. And I think if we want to really achieve something on that goal, then our students of vocational education and training should be our very first priority. Because this is the group that now benefits least from Erasmus and it's such a large group and we need them so badly, not only for the competitiveness of our Europe, but also as Europeans that experience Europe just as much as university students. So therefore, I want to hear from you and I hope you can reflect on this also with your ministers.
Do you think that the ambition of having 12% VET mobility targeted in 2030 is still enough? Because this is the same target that we had seven years ago. So maybe with our new insights, this target should be higher. And then can we work together to ringfence budget especially for this group? Because now we are not ringfencing enough and we will never even reach that 12%, let alone if we reflect that that percentage should be higher.
So I hope that you will go home and talk with your ministers about increasing this budget, about working together with the Parliament to ringfence this budget so that we can really make sure that the VET mobility increases. But there are other things aside from budget that we can do to make this group more mobile. And therefore we need more information also from you. What is actually the largest barrier for the VET learners to go abroad? Is it the employer involvement that we need to increase?
Is it insurance? Is it the language barriers that are there or administrative procedures that we really need to make simpler? You've given us some suggestions, but I think it would be really good to share more information with each other exactly on where VET schools really have problems. For example, they don't always have the sufficient capacity to make sure that participation can be organized. And I also think that on a national level there can be done more to increase this capacity.
I also really call upon you to not cut budget on the internationalization of your education on a national level, as we see in a lot of Member States that is done, but actually invest in the internationalization of your education. Lastly, I want to ask your attention for diploma recognition to make skills portability easier. Because if we want to make sure that students from VET education can study abroad for a while and not only do their traineeships abroad, we need to make sure that our educational systems are lined up more. We have the chance to do this on the basic of the Commission proposal coming after this summer. But a lot of national Member States are not willing yet to really go into the details of making our diplomas European recognized.
So I hope that you can also on this point call upon your ministers to be ambitious when it comes to European diploma recognition and that we can really make steps to make VET students more mobile in Europe. Thank you.
Sunčana Glavak
Thank you very much. So now I will switch in my mother language, so please.
Hvala vam lijepa na ovoj dragocjenoj razmjeni iskustava. Cijenimo i vaše vrijeme i vaš doprinos i ja mislim da imamo zajednički zaključak, a to je: we need more money. Tako da mislim da se tu svi možemo složiti bez obzira na politički predznak. No s druge strane, ono što sam željela posebno apostrofirati jest točno da mi iz Europskog parlamenta i zajedno sa kolegama ovdje iz S&D-a, posebno kojima zahvaljujem i na današnjoj raspravi, upozoravamo na to da se povećavaju troškovi života, da ne želimo da program koji je do sada bio program uključivosti postane program isključivosti zbog nemogućnosti participacije iz razloga koje smo danas čuli brojne djece, odnosno mladih ljudi. U ovom višegodišnjem financijskom proračunu koji još uvijek koristimo, 26,2 milijarde eura je imao Erasmus, jednu milijardu eura su imale Europske snage solidarnosti.
U to, u ovih 26,2 bio je uključen sport kojeg ste dobro apostrofirali. Tako da razumijem vašu ambiciju, brojka od 60 se spominjala ovdje. Mi ćemo nastojati sve dati od sebe kako bismo prije svega zaokružili ovaj financijski trenutak koji je kao polazišna točka najbitniji za sve. U svakom slučaju, vaše povratne informacije dobro su nam došle. Računamo na vašu suradnju i naravno računamo na vaše predstavnike i u Vijeću, a jednako tako na ministarskim sastancima kada ćemo trebati potporu za naše projekte i nemojte uopće sumnjati, mi ćemo kao članovi odbora voditi računa i o obrazovanju i o solidarnosti, a jednako tako i o sportu.
Hvala vam lijepa.
Bogdan Andrzej Zdrojewski
Bardzo, bardzo wszystkim państwu dziękuję za rozmaite głosy. Nie będę się odnosić do wystąpień moich koleżanek czy kolegów z Parlamentu Europejskiego, współpracujemy cały czas ze sobą i mamy kontakt, więc wykorzystam ten swój czas, aby odnieść się do gości, do naszych gości. Zacznę od jednej uwagi, która była związana z przemową kolegi z Irlandii. Zaczął pan od takiego stwierdzenia, że no potrzeba nam 60 miliardów, a mamy 40 i ileś. I muszę powiedzieć, że te ileś po przecinku zaintrygowało mnie bardzo, bo my o to po przecinku bardzo mocno walczyliśmy.
Zaczęliśmy od 40 miliardów. Skończyliśmy na 47,4. Każde 1000 euro to jest jeden student w zaokrągleniu. Więc wywalczenie powyżej tego, co Komisja zaproponowała, te 7 miliardów, to jest bardzo istotny, bardzo ciężki nasz sukces. Od razu powiem, że żyjemy w bardzo trudnych czasach, gdzie bezpieczeństwo i obronność stało się na pierwszym miejscu.
Wydatki na bezpieczeństwo Europy szeroko rozumiane jest pierwszym tematem. W związku z tym wszędzie są ograniczenia. Ale chcę o Komisji powiedzieć jedną rzecz dobrą: nie ma ograniczeń na Erasmus+. Nie ma ograniczeń na Kreatywną Europę. Nie ma ograniczeń na Agora EU.
Nie ma na Solidarną Europę. Co to oznacza? Że Komisja uznała, że obszar kultury i edukacji oprócz obronności jest priorytetem. Bardzo chciałbym, żeby to było 60 miliardów.
Bardzo chciałbym, żeby to było 60 miliardów, ale nie lekceważę tego, co uzyskaliśmy. Walka się nie zakończyła. Trilogi będą w styczniu, w lutym przyszłego roku. Od państwa aktywności w parlamentach i rządach zależy, czy jeszcze nam coś dojdzie. Ale każdy miliard jest bezcenny, bo każdy miliard powiększa nam dostępność.
Druga uwaga. Wielka Brytania żałuje, że mamy brexit. Ani się z tego nie cieszę, ani się tym nie martwię. Natomiast proszę zwrócić uwagę, że Wielka Brytania podjęła decyzję, że wraca do Erasmus+, do współpracy. Przeznaczy na to około 700 milionów euro.
To jest taki sektorowy powrót do Europy. Oni nie zaczęli od obronności, nie zaczęli od energetyki, od klimatu, zaczęli od programu Erasmus+. To jest ukłon wobec nas. Trzecia uwaga. Byłem na zgromadzeniu Parlamentu Europejskiego z Afryką i tam padło trzykrotnie bardzo mocno: Afryka potrzebuje takiego programu jak Erasmus+ dla Afryki.
To jest bardzo wysoki komplement dla nas wszystkich, dla Europy i takie przekonanie, że ten program wart jest grzechu, wart jest wysiłku, wart jest pełnej mobilizacji i uwzględnienia wszystkich uwag, które państwo do mnie przekazali. Króciutko o kalendarzu. Przeszliśmy pięć bardzo fantastycznych, muszę powiedzieć, takich dyskusji i konsultacji ze sportowcami, akademikami, młodzieżą, NGO-sami. Powstała fantastyczna fotografia tego, co jest dobre w Erasmus+ i gdzie są wady. Dziś rano referowałem program Erasmus+ na naszej komisji, komisji CULT.
Dziś spotkanie popołudniu z państwem. Poprawki będą zgłaszane jeszcze przez około tydzień i mam nadzieję, że głosowania nad tymi poprawkami będziemy mieli we wrześniu, a głosowanie na posiedzeniu plenarnym zakładam, że w listopadzie. Trilogi, tak jak powiedziałem, na początku przyszłego roku. To jest bardzo dobry harmonogram, który przyniesie nam odpowiedź, jak ma wyglądać ten program na rok przed tym, niż on się zacznie. Zazwyczaj jesteśmy spóźnieni.
Tym razem obiecuję państwu, że będziemy o czasie. Będziemy z dużym wyprzedzeniem. Wielka Brytania będzie jeszcze z większym wyprzedzeniem, bo Wielka Brytania do programu Erasmus+ wraca 1 stycznia już przyszłego roku. Być może także Szwajcaria. Chcę powiedzieć jeszcze dwie rzeczy dotyczące stypendiów i uwarunkowania wysokości stypendiów od kosztów pobytu w danym miejscu.
Wiemy, że one są zróżnicowane. Mamy już pewną analizę. Natomiast chcę do państwa zaapelować o naciskanie także na rządy, wasze rządy, aby uzyskiwać wsparcie także dla tego tematu, na przykład komunikacji, kosztów transportu. Są rządy, które wspomagają program Erasmus+ dodatkowymi programami dla na przykład niepełnosprawnych, najuboższych, wykluczonych w inny sposób geograficzny. Bardzo ważne jest, aby nie opierać się wyłącznie na Parlamencie Europejskim, wyłącznie na Komisji.
Warto dołożyć własny wkład, będziemy efektywniejsi. I to będzie teraz przedostatnia uwaga.
My nie rozwiążemy tu w Brukseli czy w Strasburgu wszystkich problemów praktycznych. To jest za daleka odległość. 17 milionów studentów jest już po Erasmus Plus. Skala jest niebywała, no wręcz fantastyczna. Jesteśmy usatysfakcjonowani, że to jest już pokolenie programu Erasmus Plus.
Ale wiele konkretnych programów, wiele konkretnych rzeczy, które zostało przekazanych nam dzisiaj, jest możliwe rozwiązanie tylko i wyłącznie na miejscu, dotyczących szkolnictwa zawodowego, inspirowania współpracy międzyakademickiej. Bardzo wiele takich elementów zależy od tego, jak praktyka jest budowana na dole, w miejscu zamieszkania studenta, ucznia, etc. Dodam, że w ramach programu Erasmus Plus niszowo, ale bardzo ważne jest uwzględnienie także interesów osób najstarszych. Nie tylko młodzieży, studentów, nauczycieli, ale tak zwanego uniwersytetu trzeciego wieku, tych, którzy nie mieli szans pojawić się na programie Erasmus Plus z różnych powodów. Staramy się ten program poszerzać.
I na koniec o kilku kłopotach. Pierwszy kłopot, który musimy rozwiązać: dla kogo jest ten program geograficznie? Czy tylko państwa Unii Europejskiej, czy także Ukraina, Turcja, niektóre kraje aspirujące, Mołdawia, Serbia? To jest jeden z tematów, który dla nas jest bardzo istotny i ważny. I oczywiście coś, co pojawia się bardzo często w debatach politycznych: warunkowość.
Czy państwo, które nie wypełnia standardów europejskich, państwo, które krótko mówiąc buduje problem dla Europy, problem odśrodkowy, czy państwo to powinno być, powiem wprost, karane mniejszą lub brakiem dostępności do programu Erasmus Plus? Takim państwem były przez pewien czas Węgry. Dziś Péter Magyar deklaruje powrót do tych standardów, które cechują Europę, i studenci wrócą. Nie chciałbym, podkreślam, nie chciałbym, abyśmy takie sytuacje w Europie mieli. Ale wiele programów ma tą warunkowość, wiele programów nieoczywiście w obszarze edukacji.
Musimy ten problem rozstrzygnąć, ale jesteśmy na dobrej drodze, aby to się stało. Cieszę się z państwa wsparcia także dla sportu. My nie mówimy o najlepszych i najbogatszych klubach piłkarskich, sportowcach zawodowych, piłkarzach piłki nożnej. Mówimy bardzo często o wykluczonych, o tych, którzy nagle zakończyli kariery sportowe. Mówimy o zdrowym stylu życia, o konieczności poprawiania kondycji fizycznej, o redukowaniu sytuacji, w których zwłaszcza najmłodsi bardzo często przez niepełnosprawność po prostu chorują.
Bardzo się cieszę z tych deklaracji dotyczących sportu. Sport pierwszy raz od samego początku będzie w tym programie uczestniczyć, skromnie, ale na takim poziomie, w którym będzie on zauważany. I bardzo dziękuję za wsparcie dla NGOsów. Dziękuję państwu za obecność w Brukseli, dziękuję za spędzenie, jak to w Brukseli bywa, deszczowego dnia w Parlamencie Europejskim, ale życzę państwu dobrej pogody, nie tylko tej fizycznej, ale dobrej pogody dla wszystkich państwa aktywności związanych ze światem i kulturą. Bardzo dziękuję.
Nela Riehl
Ganz herzlichen Dank, wir haben noch eine weitere Frage von Herrn Helledie aus Dänemark.
Helledie
Once again, I might say it's not really a question, more of a comment. But following up about what Mr. Sutrop just mentioned, that many of the issues we're discussing here rather should be handled nationally, I would say that when it comes to the VET schools, this is a high priority within the design of the program. I just wanted to mention a few examples of why I think this. Because we need to talk about VET learners in a more respectful way than we do right now when it comes to the Erasmus+ programs. For instance, I think the languages we use in the program guidelines are way off of the languages learned, used in VET schools and in everyday life there.
They see themselves distant from the program. They still see this as a university program, and universities are the one benefiting the most of the program right now. We need to shift this. And a way of expliciting this would be when we look at the analysises we do based on Erasmus+ program. We call VET school learners low-skilled employees.
I would say people that can fix my electrical car, that can build skyscrapers out of wood, they're definitely not low-skilled. They have different skills than I do, but I have absolutely no chance of fixing a combustion engine with a long university degree. So I would say they're highly skilled, but they're skilled in a different way. One way of solving this would maybe be to use and strengthen the COVE collaboration, Center of Vocational Excellences, and merging those application with mobility, helping VET schools meet each other across regions in Europe and actually using this as a mobility tool together with the development tools. This is not a national thing.
This is a fundamental thing within the Erasmus+ program, I would say. Thanks.
Nela Riehl
Danke, tatsächlich eine wichtige Anmerkung. Jetzt gehen wir noch einmal zur Vertreterin der Europäischen Kommission, Frau Diana Jablonska, Direktorin für Erasmus+ Bildung und Kompetenzen an der DG EAC von der Kommission. Sie haben für fünf Minuten das Wort.
Diana Jablonska
Thank you very much for giving me the floor, but most importantly, thank you for giving us the opportunity to listen to this extremely rich debate. Impossible to react to all the comments, but I think I would like to stress that there's one important thing, that Erasmus+ unites us. I think we all think that this is a great program, a program that is not a baby anymore, soon will celebrate forty years next year of its existence. And over this time, yes, brought a generation of Erasmus+ beneficiaries and also showed that it creates opportunities and benefits that reach far beyond those that directly were directly involved. It created innovation, it created new ideas in education, in training, in youth and sport.
We have mentioned a lot of them and we are also reflecting them in the proposal that Commission have put on the table. And it also has a lot of things to do to overcome the fragmentation of the education system across the EU towards further recognition of our diplomas and creating a European diplomas. So it's extremely important tool and I'm extremely happy that we all are sharing this recognition of the key importance of this program for promoting social inclusion, for promoting democracy, for promoting European values and yes, also equipping beneficiaries with skills and competences that are also important to secure our economic future, for the competitiveness.
So it is truly important program and to go forward and meet all the objectives that we all have in mind and that were so strongly underlined here, we need a very comprehensive approach. And the proposal that was put on the table by the Commission and that was commented here also and is reflected in the CULT proposal is this comprehensive approach, meaning that we have to bring together activities from formal and not formal education. We have to have activities and offer opportunities for youth actions, volunteering, physical activity, sports and formal education. Only when we allow to bring them together, we can hope for increased impact. And this is the proposal of the Commission.
That's why it is such a integrated program, because it was very important for us to propose something that is more user-friendly, that is easier to understand for stakeholders. But at the same time, the proposal is preserving the distinct identities and the opportunities of each of the sector, including the volunteering sector newly brought to the Erasmus+ family. And simplification is important for the impact, extremely important, and even more in the current global circumstances, which are marked for very difficult changes to predict, disinformation as well, global changes and also for competition for talent. For this, we need a program that is simple and more flexible and can react. And in need program indeed that is very far-reaching, that can reach many of our citizens.
And that's why some of the novelties put in the proposal are extremely important. For example, to broaden the support for schools through the European School Alliances, also through sport, recognizing the potential of physical activity to bring me more people also to education, but also to activity and for sports in itself. That's also very important from the inclusion point of view. But there is another aspect that I would like to underline. There is also an important to support talented Europeans, as we are already having a very recognized Erasmus Mundus with supporting talents from outside.
So supporting talented Europeans, also those and in particular those that are not from disadvantaged background, to continue on the education path, to have this opportunity to continue studies. This is important and one mobility might not be enough for this pupils that we have, students that we have in mind, but inclusion here is extremely important aspect to give them such a opportunity. And of course the scale will have to be, we have to be catered to this budgetary possibilities of this program, but we need to recognize that some of our groups of beneficiaries need more. That's why we also need to support additional actions for those that need them to come to the program. That's why we need to also ensure that we have a stronger capacity of organizations that are, that can bring more people to the program.
This is all important. But also this new proposal of the Commission that was also mentioned here before. And of course it is extremely important for us to work with the Parliament, with all of you, with Member States, with the Council, to ensure that the power of Erasmus+, also the financial power of Erasmus+, is as strong as we can have it. And of course, but that also means that the power of Erasmus+ needs to have a different opportunities and different actions so that we can flexibly react, because we are creating program not for one year, not for two years, but we are creating a program for a long time that needs to be equipped with different financial, financially equipped, but also equipped with different options to react to what we might not even know what will happen.
So we are more than happy to work with our partners and we of course, like mentioned before by our great, my great predecessor, we are very much counting on you as well to strengthen the Erasmus in also in your national context. Thank you very much.
Nela Riehl
Vielen Dank Diana. Wir kommen nun oder wir sind bereits am Ende angelangt unserer interparlamentarischen Ausschusssitzung. Ich glaube festhalten, zusammenfassend kann man wirklich festhalten, dass wir nicht eine einzige Stimme gehört haben, die gesagt hat, wir brauchen weniger Geld für Kultur oder weniger Geld für Bildung, wir bräuchten weniger Inklusion, sondern wir standen alle wirklich fest zusammen und haben gesagt, wir brauchen mehr. Und damit schicke ich Sie sozusagen auch nach Hause. Sie wissen uns an unserer Seite, wir brauchen mehr Budget sowohl für Erasmus+ als auch für Agora EU.
Ich möchte mich bedanken, ganz herzlich bei allen Rednerinnen und auch bei allen Teilnehmenden hier heute, die wirklich zu dieser fruchtbaren Diskussion beigetragen haben. Ich möchte sowohl die Mitglieder der nationalen Parlamente als auch des Europäischen Parlaments dazu ermutigen, den Austausch über diese interparlamentarische Ausschusssitzung hinaus fortzusetzen, und zwar indem Sie zum Beispiel einschlägige parlamentarische Dokumente austauschen, Berichte und Entschließungen oder auch sonstige Informationen, sodass wir wirklich in engem Kontakt miteinander bleiben. Ein dauerhafter interparlamentarischer Dialog und auch ein regelmäßiger Austausch von Erfahrungen und auch bewährten Verfahren können unsere gemeinsame Arbeit wirklich weiter stärken, davon bin ich wirklich überzeugt, und auch besser, so können wir auch besser koordinieren. Abschließend möchte ich mich beim CULT-Sekretariat bedanken, besonders bei Sophie und Laura. Ich weiß, dass ihr unheimlich viel zu tun hattet, weil es ein bisschen Personalengpässe gerade gibt.
Ich möchte mich aber auch bedanken bei der Direktion Beziehungen zu den nationalen Parlamenten und bei der DG LINC, die Konferenzveranstalter, die Saaldiener, die Dolmetschenden. Vielen, vielen Dank für die Unterstützung bei der Organisation heute. Und damit schließe, nee, ich schließe die Sitzung noch nicht, ich muss noch für unsere Mitglieder die nächsten Termine benennen, das ist der 13. und 14. Juli hier in Brüssel, da treffen wir uns das nächste Mal. Jetzt schließe ich das Treffen. Vielen Dank und einen schönen Abend Ihnen allen.
Speaker 66
And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room.
I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online.
And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room.
I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online.
And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room.
I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online.
And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room.
I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online.
And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room.
I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online.
And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room.
I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online.
And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room.
I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online.
And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room.
I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online.
Good afternoon, everyone. I'm very happy to welcome you to this interparliamentary committee meeting on the European Education Area. I'm very happy to see so many of you here in the room. I'm very happy to see so many of you online. And I'm very happy to see so many of you from national parliaments.
I think we have 21 national parliaments represented here today. And I think that's a very good sign of the importance of this topic. The European Education Area is a very important topic for the European Parliament. It's a very important topic for the European Commission. And it's a very important topic for the Member States.
And I think it's very important that we have this exchange of views today. We have a very full agenda. We have two panels. The first panel will be on the European Education Area in general. And the second panel will be on the European Education Area and the digital transition.
We have some very distinguished speakers. And I'm very happy to welcome them here today. I'm also very happy to welcome the Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, Mariya Gabriel. She will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Minister for Education of the Czech Republic, Vladimír Balaš.
He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Chair of the Committee on Education and Science of the Czech Chamber of Deputies, Marek Výborný. He will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the Czech Senate, Jiří Růžička. He will be joining us for the second panel.
I'm also very happy to welcome the Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the French National Assembly, Agnès Firmin Le Bodo. She will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the French Senate, Laurent Lafon. He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the German Bundestag, Kai Gehring.
He will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the German Bundesrat, Karin Prien. She will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, Vittoria Casa. She will be joining us for the first panel.
And I'm very happy to welcome the Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the Italian Senate, Riccardo Nencini. He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the Polish Sejm, Mirosława Stachowiak-Różecka. She will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the Polish Senate, Kazimierz Wiatr.
He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the Spanish Congress of Deputies, Sandra Moneo. She will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the Spanish Senate, José Manuel Pingarrón. He will be joining us for the second panel.
I'm also very happy to welcome the Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the Swedish Riksdag, Gunilla Svantorp. She will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the Swedish Riksdag, Roger Haddad. He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Sabine Verheyen.
She will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Romeo Franz. He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Dace Melbārde. She will be joining us for the first panel.
And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Victor Negrescu. He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Michaela Šojdrová. She will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Laurence Farreng.
She will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Salima Yenbou. She will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Alexis Georgoulis. He will be joining us for the second panel.
I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Niyazi Kizilyürek. He will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Peter Pollák. He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Tomasz Frankowski.
He will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Marcos Ros Sempere. He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Ilana Cicurel. She will be joining us for the first panel.
And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Domènec Ruiz Devesa. He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Massimiliano Smeriglio. He will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Petra Kammerevert.
She will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Hannes Heide. He will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Predrag Fred Matić. He will be joining us for the second panel.
I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Lukasz Kohut. He will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Irena Joveva. She will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Vlad-Marius Botoş.
He will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Morten Løkkegaard. He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Monica Semedo. She will be joining us for the first panel.
And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Lucia Ďuriš Nicholsonová. She will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Dragoş Pîslaru. He will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Atidzhe Alieva-Veli.
She will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Radka Maxová. She will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Katrin Langensiepen. She will be joining us for the second panel.
I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Mounir Satouri. He will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Diana Riba i Giner. She will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Marcel Kolaja.
He will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Mikuláš Peksa. He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Patrick Breyer. He will be joining us for the first panel.
And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Markéta Gregorová. She will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, David Cormand. He will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield.
She will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Damien Carême. He will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Karima Delli. She will be joining us for the second panel.
I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Yannick Jadot. He will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Michèle Rivasi. She will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Caroline Roose.
She will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Marie Toussaint. She will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Benoît Biteau. He will be joining us for the first panel.
And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Claude Gruffat. He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana. She will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Erik Marquardt.
He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Hannah Neumann. She will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Jutta Paulus. She will be joining us for the second panel.
I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Terry Reintke. She will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Tineke Strik. She will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Viola Von Cramon-Taubadel.
She will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Thomas Waitz. He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Sarah Wiener. She will be joining us for the first panel.
And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Tatjana Ždanoka. She will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, François Alfonsi. He will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Alviina Alametsä.
She will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Margrete Auken. She will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Michael Bloss. He will be joining us for the second panel.
I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Saskia Bricmont. She will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Reinhard Bütikofer. He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Anna Cavazzini.
She will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Jakop G. Dalunde. He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Rosa D'Amato. She will be joining us for the first panel.
And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Bas Eickhout. He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Eleonora Evi. She will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Malte Gallée.
He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Alexandra Geese. She will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Francisco Guerreiro. He will be joining us for the second panel.
I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Henrike Hahn. She will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Martin Häusling. He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Pär Holmgren.
He will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Stasys Jakeliūnas. He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Alice Kuhnke. She will be joining us for the first panel.
And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Sergey Lagodinsky. He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Philippe Lamberts. He will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Sara Matthieu.
She will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Tilly Metz. She will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Niklas Nienaß. He will be joining us for the second panel.
I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Ville Niinistö. He will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Grace O'Sullivan. She will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Piernicola Pedicini.
He will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Kira Marie Peter-Hansen. She will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Mikuláš Peksa. He will be joining us for the first panel.
And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Manuela Ripa. She will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Bronis Ropė. He will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Mounir Satouri.
He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Nico Semsrott. He will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Jordi Solé. He will be joining us for the second panel.
I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Sylwia Spurek. She will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Nicolae Ştefănuță. He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Ernest Urtasun.
He will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Monika Vana. She will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Kim Van Sparrentak. She will be joining us for the first panel.
And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Salima Yenbou. She will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, François Alfonsi. He will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Alviina Alametsä.
She will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Margrete Auken. She will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Michael Bloss. He will be joining us for the second panel.
I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Saskia Bricmont. She will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Reinhard Bütikofer. He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Anna Cavazzini.
She will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Jakop G. Dalunde. He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Rosa D'Amato. She will be joining us for the first panel.
And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Bas Eickhout. He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Eleonora Evi. She will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Malte Gallée.
He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Alexandra Geese. She will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Francisco Guerreiro. He will be joining us for the second panel.
I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Henrike Hahn. She will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Martin Häusling. He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Pär Holmgren.
He will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Stasys Jakeliūnas. He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Alice Kuhnke. She will be joining us for the first panel.
And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Sergey Lagodinsky. He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Philippe Lamberts. He will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Sara Matthieu.
She will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Tilly Metz. She will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Niklas Nienaß. He will be joining us for the second panel.
I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Ville Niinistö. He will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Grace O'Sullivan. She will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Piernicola Pedicini.
He will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Kira Marie Peter-Hansen. She will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Mikuláš Peksa. He will be joining us for the first panel.
And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Manuela Ripa. She will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Bronis Ropė. He will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Mounir Satouri.
He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Nico Semsrott. He will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Jordi Solé. He will be joining us for the second panel.
I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Sylwia Spurek. She will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Nicolae Ştefănuță. He will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Ernest Urtasun.
He will be joining us for the first panel. And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Monika Vana. She will be joining us for the second panel. I'm also very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Kim Van Sparrentak. She will be joining us for the first panel.
And I'm very happy to welcome the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, Science, Youth and Sport of the European Parliament, Salima Yenbou. She will be joining us for the second panel.
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