Activites

• 2000/02/03 Final act published in Official Journal
  • Decision 2000/253
  • OJ L 028 03.02.2000, p. 0001
• 2000/01/24 Final act signed
• 2000/01/24 End of procedure in Parliament
• #2237
• 1999/12/16 Council Meeting
• 1999/12/15 Decision by Parliament, 3rd reading
  • T5-0151/1999 summary

    By adopting the report by Mrs Doris PACK (EPP-ED, D), the European Parliament approved the joint text fixing the budget for SOCRATES II at EUR 1.850 million (that is EUR 300 million higher than the first Council proposal) and attached to the proposal a compulsory revision clause in the event of enlargement governed by the co-decision procedure. In addition, the Parliament called for an evaluation report analysing the practical results achieved by this programme, as well as for the simplification of the selection procedures for projects. Lastly, SOCRATES will contribute to the development of a European dimension for education and training, as the Parliament has been seeking.�

• 1999/12/13 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• 1999/12/08 Report tabled for plenary, 3rd reading
  • A5-0097/1999
• #2224
• 1999/11/26 Council Meeting
• 1999/11/24 Joint text approved by Conciliation Committee co-chairs
  • 3626/1999
• 1999/11/09 Final decision by Conciliation Committee
• 1999/09/29 Formal meeting of Conciliation Committee
• 1999/08/13 Parliament's amendments rejected by Council
• #2187
• 1999/06/07 Council Meeting
  • 2187
• 1999/02/25 Decision by Parliament, 2nd reading
  • T4-0132/1999 summary

    The Council's common position was approved by the Parliament subject to some amendments. Parliament's rapporteur was Ms. Doris Pack (EPP, Germany). One of these amendments sought to promote the use of lesser-used languages, such as Irish and Luxemburgish, and another related to the share-out of the budget. Parliament also wants to see an evaluative report on the results of the programme in the context of the resources allocated. It also voted to increase the funding from EUR 1550 million for the seven-year programme as agreed by Council to EUR 2250 million.�

• 1999/02/24 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• 1999/02/17 Vote in committee, 2nd reading
  • A4-0062/1999
• 1999/01/14 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 2nd reading
• 1998/12/21 Council position published
  • 13327/1/1998 summary

    The Council's common position takes into account, to a large degree, the amendments proposed by the European Parliament and supported by the Commission in its amended proposal (25 amendments taken up out of the 34 put forward by the Commission). The amendments were as follows : - the explicit mention, in terms of the objectives of the programme, of the principle of integration of equal opportunities between men and women in all the actions; - greater emphasis on references to the European course credit transfer system (ECTS); - clarification of the arrangements on complementarity between the programme and other Community policies; - consolidation of the arrangements for monitoring and evaluation of the programme; - the name 'Minerva' to be given to Action 5 of the programme, which relates to open and distance learning and new technologies. On the other hand, the Council did not take on board the Parliament's amendments concerning: - a stronger appeal to the Member States to remove obstacles to access to the programme; - the allocation of ERASMUS grants, giving a priority to students whose financial circumstances warrant special assistance; - the inclusion of an explicit reference to the possibility of using the Structural Funds to disseminate and transfer the programme's results on a wider scale. Nor did the Council take up the Parliament's suggestions for the development of a multilingual European school T.V., the concept of 'participation in democratic culture' or the setting up of 'European knowledge centres'. On this latter point, the Council preferred a more general reference to the promotion of 'regional and local contact and interaction between the players involved in this programme and in Leonardo da Vinci and Youth programmes. The main innovations in the Council's common position are as follow: - duration of the programme : seven years (in line with the proposed tilespan of the next phase of the financial perspective) instead of 5 years in the initial proposal; - the SOCRATES budget : MEUR 1550 over 7 years instead of MEUR 1400 over 5 years (as opposed to MEUR 2000 proposed by the Parliament); - breakdown of funds between actions; - selection procedures - two procedural variants within the category of centralised actions and the possibility of a 2-phase procedure in those cases where the scale and nature of the activities in question justify it; - commitology : the Council opted for a type IIb procedure and strengthened the number of measures to be decided using this procedure.�

• #2153
• 1998/12/20 Council Meeting
• #2147
• 1998/12/04 Council Meeting
• 1998/12/02 Modified legislative proposal published
  • COM(1998)0719 summary

    The Commission accepts in full or in part those 34 of the 54 amendments proposed by the Parliament which : - improve and strengthen the initial proposal by incorporating features designed to make access to the programme easier for target publics who may have difficulties in taking part; - are designed to strengthen the emphasis placed on certain key features of the proposal, e.g. the dissemination of results and the academic recognition of studies pursued in other Member States via the ECTS (European course credit transfer system); - in relation to the initial proposal, provide useful additional information and clarify specific aspects of cooperation policy in the field of education. The Commission rejects those amendments which: - concern institutional aspects such as rules on committee procedures and budgetary matters; - propose increasing funding, preferring to abide by its initial proposal; - are designed to group together Action 6 (Observation and innovation), Action 7 (Joint actions) and Action 8 (Support measures) into a single measure called "Horizontal measures", considering that this would detract from the political visibility of Actions 6 and 7 to which the Commission wishes to give priority in the context of creating a Europe of knowledge.�

• 1998/11/05 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
  • T4-0640/1998 summary

    In adopting the report by Mrs Doris PACK (PPE, D) on the second phase of the Socrates programme, the European Parliament called for the programme to contribute to the development of quality education and encourage lifelong learning. Its objective is to attain a participation rate of at least 10% of the target groups at whom the programme is aimed. Parliament therefore called for the budget to be increased from the figure of EUR 1.4 bn proposed by the Commission to EUR 2 bn. Parliament considered that Socrates should aim to: - strengthen the European dimension in education by encouraging the acquisition of language skills (by learning two other Community languages, one of which should be of a neighbouring country) and knowledge of other cultures; - promote cooperation in the field of education and remove obstacles to such cooperation, by encouraging mobility among teachers and students, cooperation between educational institutions, better recognition of diplomas and periods of study and improvements in the exchange of information; - encourage innovation in particular where such innovation is associated with new technologies and the learning of languages. Parliament wished the programme to be devoted to five actions (rather than eight, as proposed by the Commission): - school education (Comenius), - higher education (Erasmus), - other educational pathways (Grundtvig), - teaching and learning of languages (Lingua), - education and multimedia (Minerva), as well as horizontal measures. It wished the programme to be addressed to all pupils and students, all categories of staff involved in education, all types of educational institutions, local and regional authorities and other bodies, associations, companies, organisations of both sides of industry and research centres and bodies. Parliament called for cooperation with other local, national or European initiatives to be stepped up (including cooperation with Community agencies) and for Parliament to be informed of reports on the implementation of the programme. These reports must contain information about the programme's contribution to the establishment of a European education system and on measures taken to combat discrimination. Amendments were made to the annex to the programme in accordance with the rationalisation of activities called for by Parliament (5 actions rather than 8) and stressing support for cultural diversity and learning of neighbouring languages (Parliament particularly suggested that a multilingual European school television be established under Minerva).�

• 1998/10/13 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • A4-0371/1998
• 1998/09/14 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• #2102
• 1998/06/04 Council Meeting
  • 2102
• 1998/05/27 Legislative proposal published
  • COM(1998)0329 summary

    OBJECTIVE: to propose the 2nd phase of the Community education programme in the field of education, Socrates, for the period 2000-2004. SUBSTANCE: the proposal seeks to establish the second phase of the Socrates programme for the period from 01.01.2000 to 31.12.2004. The total budget proposed for this period is EUR 1.4 billion. By supporting and supplementing the work of the Member States in this field, Socrates II will aim to promote the quality of education by promoting cooperation, increasing mobility and developing the European dimension in all sectors of education. The aim is to help create a 'European education area' where lifelong learning will be promoted and citizenship can be fully exercised. The main innovations of Socrates II include the attention devoted to lifelong learning by bolstering 'adult education' and establishing 'European Knowledge Centres' to bring together implementers and beneficiaries of other Community education, training and youth programmes. The proposal also seeks to define more clearly the players and beneficiaries of the programme. Internally, the programme has been rationalised, limiting the number of actions and decentralising to the maximum the management of the actions undertaken at national level. The structure of the programme: Socrates II has 4 objectives (as against 9 in Socrates I): - to strengthen the European dimension in education; - to promote cooperation in the field of education; - to help remove the obstacles to cooperation; - to encourage innovation. The objectives are to be pursued by means of the eight actions, the first three of which concern the three basic stages of education (school, university and other educational pathways), while the remaining five concern horizontal education policies (languages, multimedia, exchanges of information and other horizontal aspects, such as innovation, dissemination of results and joint actions). Proposed actions: 1) Comenius (school education), comprising school partnerships, or encouragement for the establishment of partnerships between schools in the Member States and professional development projects for schools' teaching staff; 2) Erasmus (higher education), comprising traditional university cooperation and mobility projects; 3) Grundtvig (other educational pathways), to promote education of the young after they have left the school system and of adults who wish to resume their studies after a break from the education system; 4) Lingua: teaching and learning of languages, using innovative methods; 5) Atlas: projects to promote distance education and multimedia communication for educational purposes; 6) Observation and innovation: exchanges of information and experience concerning European education systems, and innovation in these sectors; 7) Joint actions: generation of synergy with other Community programmes, in connection with policy on 'European knowledge centres'; 8) Accompanying measures (miscellaneous initiatives to raise awareness of education, such as the 'Europe in the School' competition and dissemination of the results of the projects carried out). The programme is to be implemented consistently with other Community initiatives or programmes (Leonardo II, Youth, programmes concerned with research, culture, employment, SMEs, etc.) and devote special attention to equality of opportunity for women and men. The Commission is to manage the programme in close cooperation with Member States. Selection procedures have been rationalised (2 calls for proposals rather than 5) and management rendered more decentralised (Member States are required to set up integrated management structures to take charge of the operational implementation of projects). As regards commitology, the Commission will be assisted by a committee of representatives of the Member States, whose powers will vary according to the subject in question. The programme will be extended, under financing provisions to be determined, to the Eastern European applicant countries, Cyprus, Malta, Turkey and the EEA countries. Cooperation with third countries and the relevant international organisations (Council of Europe) will also be stepped up. As regards evaluation and monitoring of Socrates II, the Commission will publish a first mid-term review of the programme by 30.06.2003, and a final analysis report by 31.12.2005. Socrates II will be evaluated regularly throughout its implementation, in cooperation with Member States.�

Documents

• Legislative proposal published: COM(1998)0329
• Debate in Council: 2102
• Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading: A4-0371/1998
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T4-0640/1998
• Modified legislative proposal published: COM(1998)0719
• Council position published: 13327/1/1998
• Committee recommendation tabled for plenary, 2nd reading: A4-0062/1999
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 2nd reading: T4-0132/1999
• Debate in Council: 2187
• Joint text approved by Conciliation Committee co-chairs: 3626/1999
• Report tabled for plenary, 3rd reading: A5-0097/1999
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 3rd reading: T5-0151/1999
• : Decision 2000/253
• : OJ L 028 03.02.2000, p. 0001

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)