european forum for freedom in education

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NEWSLETTER – INFOBRIEF – NEWSLETTER –

INFOBRIEF
04/2010

Dear effe-members,

We are already getting excited about our Colloquium which is taking place from
the 18th – 20th November 2010 at the University of Witten/Herdecke. We would
be delighted to see you there. For more information, please log on to our website
at www.effe-eu.org.

We would be happy to give you some more information.

Theme of the Newsletter:

• The Belgian Presidency of the European Council
• “Youth on the Move” - The new flagship initiative of the
European Commission
• News from effe in Brussels

July of this year Belgium took over from

The Belgian Presidency of the Spain as the holder of the EU Council
Presidency. The Belgian Presidency is
European Council only the 2nd under the new Lisbon
treaty and they must continue to adjust
to the new working dynamic between
themselves and the permanent Presi-
dent of the Council, Herman Van Rom-
In puy. It will be interesting to see how the
Belgian Presidency can make its mark
considering the current domestic nego-
tiations1 to build a national govern-
ment.

The effects of the world financial crisis

inevitably dominate the agenda. To-
gether with the previous Spanish Presi-

1
See: http://www.euractiv.com/en/priorities/divided-
belgium-prepares-take-eu-presidency-news-
495422
page 1 of 5

für die Zukunft der Kinder pour l’avenir des enfants for the future of the children
dency and the Hungarian Presidency
which will follow in 2011, Belgium
makes up the so-called ‘trio’ of three
Presidencies which work side-by-side for
policy continuity. Belgium is looking for
financial reform as much as economic
recovery and has published extensive
proposals for stricter financial regula-
tion. The ultimate goal however is the
long-term prosperity of Europe and this
is where education features.2
Because there are the three different
language communities in Belgium, the
workings of government are a little
more complicated than in other EU
countries. There are three regions
(Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels) but
also three communities (the Flemish,
French and German-speaking communi-
ties). Whilst the government of the
French-speaking community is respon-
sible for the Wallonia and German-
speaking regions, the Flemish govern-
ment runs Flanders. Education in Bel-
gium is therefore the responsibility of
the different language communities and
2
See:
http://www.eutrio.be/files/bveu/media/source1854/
documents/27782_PL_SPF_UK.pdf (pp.42-45)
www.effe-eu.org european forum for freedom in education
für die Zukunft der Kinder pour l’avenir des enfants
each of the Flemish, French and German
speaking communities each have their
own ministers for Education. Since these
separations of government carry across
to the Belgian Presidency, different pol-
icy areas have been assigned to differ-
ent language community governments.
The Flemish speaking community is
principally in charge of education for
Belgium’s Presidency, but both the
Flemish and French-speaking govern-
ments have highlighted the importance
of education, in particular the role of
education in combating social inclusion.
Since 2010 is the ‘European Year for
Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion’
this debate comes at an appropriate
time.3
A conference entitled “Breaking the Cy-
cle of Disadvantage: Social inclusion in
and through education” was organised
by the Belgian Presidency and the
Commission in September and it sought
to deal with the issues surrounding so-
cial inequality. They explain that “high-
quality education increases the chances
of social mobility and of breaking the
vicious circle of poverty and social ex-
clusion.”4
The Belgian government is also working
to achieve the existing Europe 2020
goal of reducing the school drop-out
rate to 10% as well as to increase gen-
eral mobility amongst young people in
Europe.5 The Commission’s ‘Youth on
the Move’ scheme published this year
hopes to play a major part in achieving
these goals. They propose further sup-
porting the existing life-long learning
programmes like ERASMUS in addition
to introducing new schemes such as the
‘Youth on the Move Card’ which aims to
ease the integration of young people
3
See:
http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=637
page 2 von 5
for the future of the children
when they move abroad to study or
work. 6
Whenever it comes to education policy,
the European Union continues to under-
score the over-arching economic impor-
tance of education for the future eco-
nomic prosperity of Europe. Debates
like the “Breaking the Cycle of Disad-
vantage” as mentioned above, which
concern education policies in their own
right are though a welcome step in the
right direction.
“Youth on the Move”
The new flagship initiative of
the European Commission
“Youth on the Move” is the new flagship
proposal from the European Commission
that was published in September of this
year. Broadly, it aims to “unleash the
potential of young people to achieve
smart, sustainable and inclusive growth
in the European Union”.7 In other
words, it hopes to make it easier for
young people to get the education they
require, to find employment and to
move around Europe to study and/or
live. The driving motivation behind this
is to make the European Union a more
economically prosperous and stable
place in the future. Though individual
member states remain in charge of na-
tional education policies, the European
4
See:
http://www.education2010.be/en/calendar/social-
inclusion/
5
See:
http://www.eutrio.be/files/bveu/media/source1854/
documents/27782_PL_SPF_UK.pdf (p.42)
6
See:
http://ec.europa.eu/education/yom/com_en.pdf
7 12
See:
http://ec.europa.eu/education/yom/com_en.pdf
(p.3)
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für die Zukunft der Kinder pour l’avenir des enfants
Union hopes to strengthen cooperation
between members as well as lend there
support to successful projects and poli-
cies.8 The initiative is part of the
“Europe 2020”9 strategy which follows
on from the “Lisbon Strategy” 10 from
2000. effe welcomes this paper from
the European Commission, the acknowl-
edgement of youth issues and the pro-
motion of opportunities and greater
freedoms for the young people of
Europe.
There are three main headline objec-
tives of the “Youth on the Move” initia-
tive11:
1) The first is to reach a 75% em-
ployment level amongst 20-64
year olds.
Programmes aimed at achieving this
goal include the “Your first EURES Job”12
which looks to help young people get
access to employment and encourage
employers to take on young, mobile
workers. A “European Vacancy Moni-
8
See: http://europa.eu/pol/educ/index_en.htm
9
See:
http://ec.europa.eu/eu2020/pdf/COMPLET%20EN
%20BARROSO%20%20%20007%20-
%20Europe%202020%20-%20EN%20version.pdf
10
See:
http://ec.europa.eu/education/focus/focus479_en.h
tm
11
See:
http://ec.europa.eu/education/yom/com_en.pdf (p.
3)
See:
http://ec.europa.eu/education/yom/com_en.pdf (p.
14)
page 3 von 5
for the future of the children
tor”13 will publish information on skills
shortages in different areas with the
intention to help inform decisions about
moving abroad to work. A “European
Skills passport”14 hopes to make skills
more internationally transferable whilst
the “Youth on the Move Card”15 scheme
will try to speed up the integration
process for young learners and workers
when moving abroad.
2) The second goal is to have 40%
of 30-34 year olds with a com-
pleted tertiary or equivalent edu-
cation.
The Bologna process along with the
European Credit Transfer System16
(ECTS) and European Qualifications
Framework17 (EQF) started the process
of standardisation amongst universities
in Europe to make academic studying
abroad easier. The Commission will re-
iterate its belief that an investment of
2% of GDP is required for a fully funded
university system and will study the op-
tion of developing an alternative global
university ranking system with less em-
phasis on research.18 The Commission
13
See:
http://ec.europa.eu/ireland/press_office/news_of_t
he_day/eu-jobs-vacancy-monitor_en.htm
14
See:
http://ec.europa.eu/education/yom/com_en.pdf (p.
12)
15
See:
http://ec.europa.eu/education/yom/com_en.pdf (p.
12)
16
See: http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-
learning-policy/doc/ects/guide_en.pdf
17
See:
http://ec.europa.eu/education/pub/pdf/general/eqf/l
eaflet_en.pdf
18
See:
http://ec.europa.eu/education/yom/com_en.pdf
(p.9) The Commission’s thinking behind this is that a
new ranking system is required to address what it sees
as the existing ranking systems’ bias towards American
universities at the expense of European institutions.
The Commission hopes that a new ranking system
www.effe-eu.org european forum for freedom in education
für die Zukunft der Kinder pour l’avenir des enfants
would also like to promote more voca-
tional education and training (referred
to by the Commission as ‘VET’). Skills
gained from apprenticeships are not
only seen by the Commission as being
increasingly in demand19 but they also
regard it as another helpful means of
transition between school and the world
of
work.
3) The third objective is to reduce
the early school-leaving to 10%.
There are three types of learning; for-
mal (officially recognised qualifications
and learning at school or university for
example), non-formal (private tuition,
further and advanced training, often as
part of job training) and finally informal
(which encompasses everything learnt
in day-to-day life such as hobbies or
playing sports).20 The European Com-
mission would like to encourage the
validation of non-formal and informal
learning21 alongside formal learning
would properly take into account other factors aside
from research, like quality of teaching, innovation and
internationalism and therefore enhance the attractive-
ness of European institutions at home and abroad.
19
See:
http://ec.europa.eu/education/yom/com_en.pdf
(p.6)
20
See: „Der Einfluss der Europäischen Union auf nati-
onale Bildung“ (pp.19-27) in Recht & Bildung: Sonder-
heft Nr. 3 (IfBB); Liekenbrock, Anne; June 2010
21
See:
http://ec.europa.eu/education/yom/com_en.pdf
(p.7)
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for the future of the children
which it feels is often undervalued by
prospective employers. 2011 will also be
the ‘European Year of Volunteering’ dur-
ing which volunteering schemes as well
as the importance and value of volun-
teering shall be promoted.22 Clear and
informed careers guidance coupled with
a strong set of alternatives to purely
formal, academic learning, it is hoped,
will help reduce the school-drop rate.23
As the title of the initiative suggests in-
creasing the mobility of young people in
Europe lays at the heart of this pro-
posal. This goal of increased freedom in
training and education is certainly wor-
thy of effe’s appreciation, albeit ulti-
mately for economic reasons. There is
no silver-bullet or one-size-fits-all solu-
tion to any of the problems and difficul-
ties which young people face in these
difficult economic climate or indeed oth-
erwise. But the European Commission
hopes that with the “Youth on the Move”
initiative, they have a set of schemes to
promote individual freedom and com-
munal prosperity within the European
Union.
News from effe in Brussels
effe applied for a European Union pro-
ject grant in the area of “Youth in Ac-
tion“ at the beginning of September
2010. effe is hoping to receive support
for a Europe wide project concerning
“Youth Democracy Projects”. An answer
from the European Commission will be
given by February 2011.
effe has set up a new Facebook page
which can be found by searching for
“European Forum for Freedom in Educa-
tion“. It can be linked to your profile
pages. News concerning education poli-
cies of the European Union as well as
effe will be announced via this page.
Editorial:
Anne Liekenbrock
Elisabeth Köpke
Joshua Tebbutt (intern)
Mergelteichstr. 59
44225 Dortmund
Tel. +49-231-88083322
Fax +49-231-88083322
GLS Gemeinschaftsbank Bankkonto:
4036 377 800
Bankleitzahl: 430 609 67
IBAN: DE49 430 609 674 036 277 800
SWIFT-BIC: GENODE M 1 GLS

The effe office in Brussels appointed a

new intern to support the European
work. Joshua Tebbutt is native English
and speaks fluent French and German.
You can contact him via assistant@effe-
eu.org with any general questions.

22
See:
http://ec.europa.eu/citizenship/news/news820_en.
htm
23
See:
http://ec.europa.eu/education/yom/com_en.pdf
(p.7)

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für die Zukunft der Kinder pour l’avenir des enfants for the future of the children