Mr President, Commissioner, the Commission proposal for an eLearning Programme shows that the decisions of the Lisbon Summit are being implemented, even if the ambitious aims of the strategy regarding full employment and economic success are in difficulties owing to the uncertainty of the global economy. The eLearning Programme is also a good example of excellent cooperation between Parliament and the Commission. On Parliament’s initiative, and for the second year running, the EU budget already has a special budget line to support eLearning. This year EUR 18 million has been allocated to this heading, B 3-1000. The Committee on Culture, Youth, Education, the Media and Sport has in fact expressed its concern that the Commission proposal will mean less being spent each year on the programme than has now been allocated for the preparatory actions. For that reason the committee is proposing that the overall budget be increased from 36 million to 54 million. The Committee on Culture, Youth, Education, the Media and Sport is aware that the expenditure for its category of activity must be accommodated within the degree of manoeuvre reserved for heading 3 in the Financial Perspective, which is very restricted. Neither do we wish to haggle over the financing of multi-annual programmes that have already been approved. I would nevertheless like to draw people’s attention to the fact that the opinion of the Committee on Budgets also makes reference to the discrepancy between the Commission proposal and the preparatory actions. It is the opinion of the Committee on Budgets, therefore, that there would seem to be genuine justification for increasing the appropriation, as proposed by the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education, the Media and Sport. Besides, it concerns such a small amount that it will probably go into the margin for error under heading 3. The Committee on Culture, Youth, Education, the Media and Sport would like to stress the importance of school twinning via the Internet. The committee would like both primary and secondary schools to be included. The inclusion of primary schools is, I think, justified for many reasons. Networking via the Internet will provide brand new opportunities for small schools in remote areas to provide an opportunity for international studies and learning foreign languages and foreign cultures. As primary schools cover a whole age group there are good grounds for making such facilities available to them, also to prevent the digital divide, which is the other aim of the programme. For everyone to be included in the information society it is vital that there is a sufficient number of teachers with information technology skills. The use of computers as a teaching tool is still very limited. In 2002, on average 90% of primary schools had an Internet connection, but only 39% of teachers used the Internet in their teaching. There are still considerable differences in the extent to which the Internet is used among different countries, as we have already heard here. They will narrow only if there is action on the part of the Member States. The eLearning Programme at its best will only ever be an undertaking to support the equal utilisation of information technology and provide examples of how it can be used.

Political group: PSE