Mr President, of course I should not like to confine my comments to the work of the Conciliation Committee, because this would surely not go far enough. I think that we should also use this second reading once again to hold a general debate on education in the Europe of the future. At the end I will come back to the outcome of the conciliation procedure. The issue of education in the Europe of the future is also the issue of the future of Europe itself. This is actually a fact which the members of the Council ought finally to take on board. Europe can only continue to grow together if the people of Europe accept this process and are prepared to play an active part in it. This is particularly important in the light of the enlargement of the EU towards which we are working. Our hopes are centred first and foremost on the young generation in our countries. They are the ones who will shape the future of Europe. That is why we need to win over young people to the European project. That is why we need to meet them, at least to some extent, where they already are in terms of their present knowledge and expectations. Many of them think in much more global terms and often have considerably more personal experience of being abroad than we had when we were young. But, of course, there are many others who lack this personal experience, who – like their parents – are frightened of this large Europe because they do not understand it, and who have never had the opportunity to spend time with people from other countries. This is why I believe that the European education policy is one of the key tasks within the European Union. As more aspects of European society become intertwined, communication and therefore mastering foreign languages will become increasingly important. Economic integration owing to the internal market makes mobility a key factor. Closer integration inevitably forces us to confront different views. The pluralism of cultures and world views means, however, that greater mutual understanding and thus more knowledge about others is required, which means that information needs to be exchanged. Imparting all this knowledge and experience needs to start early on. That is how the first comprehensive European programme for cooperation in all spheres of education came about in 1995; it was called Socrates. Since then, I have been the rapporteur and am glad that this programme has been really extremely successful. Now we are launching the Socrates II programme for 2000 to 2007. This programme consists, firstly, of the opportunities offered to schools under Comenius, which encourages school classes from different countries throughout Europe to work together on projects. Its second part is Erasmus, which addresses student mobility, and then the third component – called Gruntvig – is adult education, an initiative which has finally led to progress being made in an area where action had been necessary in the European Union for some considerable time. Adult education became part of the Socrates I programme in 1995 by a circuitous route, through an amendment which I tabled. In the course of the year, this led to people throughout Europe developing a desire for adult education and lifelong learning and we believe that the response to this in the shape of the Gruntvig part of Socrates is the right response. I am proud that we have achieved this. It is precisely this incorporation of Gruntvig in the Socrates programme which actually shows how Europe works. This was an idea which had always had a foothold in the northern countries – in Austria, in the Scandinavian countries, in Germany; in England too the concept of adult education has always existed – but in the southern countries it had not taken root to such an extent. In Europe we managed to establish this everywhere. I am proud of this. That is why I believe that here too, we have achieved something important precisely for the next seven years. I now come to the subject which concerns us all, namely the result of the Conciliation Committee's deliberations. In terms of content, we have achieved all that we set out to achieve. I should like very much to welcome the fact that the Council has agreed that when we award mobility grants we can at long last, consider the possibility of only giving them to those who really need them, so that those who might not otherwise be able to take part for financial reasons can perhaps also take part after all, because the money is made available to them in this way. I also welcome the fact that the Council has agreed to step up support for learning our neighbours' languages. I very much regret that the Council was not in a position to join us in including the term 'European educational area'. They hummed and hawed as if this European educational area did not yet exist. It does exist, but in the end for the sake of keeping the peace we gave in, so that there will continue to be a European dimension in education. As far as the budget is concerned, Mr President – you were there, but I must repeat this – I am not happy. We wanted EUR 2.5 billion, which is the amount which we would have required for this major undertaking. Unfortunately, we only obtained EUR 1.85 billion, but with an assurance that a review clause would be incorporated after two years. I believe that we can be satisfied with this. I hope that this programme is just as successful as Socrates I. (Applause)

Political group: PPE-DE