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Data: 04/08/2011
A conference on the Eastern dimension of mobility in education, youth, research, culture and sport was held in Warsaw on 6-7 July 2011.
Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou addressed the conference and highlighted the need to support not only more student exchanges but also to strive to increase the mobility of teachers, young people, researchers and professionals in the cultural sector. She pointed out that we already have the instruments - Erasmus Mundus, Tempus, Marie Curie and Youth in Action have all proved to be valuable for the free movement and exchange of ideas and knowledge between our cultures.
The Commissioner also reminded conference participants of the Commission's recent proposals to develop the Neighbourhood policy to offer an ever closer relationship with the EU, and establish an area of stability built on prosperity and democracy. Mobility and the contacts that it stimulates between peoples are essential to achieving these objectives. The Commission has therefore proposed a substantial financial increase for the participation of Neighbouring countries in all education, youth and culture programmes during the next two years to 2013.
The objective of the conference was to reinforce mobility flows (both in numbers and quality) between the European Union and Eastern Partnership countries, identify the main obstacles to mobility and collect recommendations to feed current reflections on the international dimension of the future generation of cooperation programmes. Participants did not deny the serious obstacles to mobility which continue to exist between the two regions, in particular related to visa delivery, recognition issues or insufficient information on funding opportunities. The uneven mobility flows are also seen as problematic: in the future generation of programmes, the Commission will need to identify ways to incite EU students, teachers, researchers, young people and cultural actors to spend more learning, teaching or research mobility in EaP countries.
The conference was highly appreciated as a forum for cross disciplinary discussions, informal contacts between officials, Commission and civil society and a useful information event on education, research, youth and culture policies. It was co-organised by the European Commission and the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU. It was the first ever event of this kind organised for Eastern Partnership countries and was considered by most participants as a good promotion and discussion event that should be followed up.
Sito web: http://ec.europa.eu/education/news/news3019_en.htm
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