Mr President, this report is strongly supported by the Group. Indeed, we have supported it throughout the entire procedure. We regretted that initially there was some slight resistance from the Council but we are very pleased that, as a result of strong intervention by the Commissioner and the negotiating skills of the rapporteur, a compromise was reached last autumn that we can certainly support. We congratulate the Commissioner and the rapporteur on their work to achieve that. We certainly all agree here in this Chamber that education is of vital importance and that an educated workforce is the cornerstone of Europe's future prosperity. Therefore, any attempts to improve standards in our schools must be welcomed with open arms. We also all agree that education is rightly a matter for the individual Member States and the regions. But there is room for the Commission to coordinate and improve evaluation systems as provided for in the Treaty and I was glad to see that the Commission was careful to emphasise that this is to be based on voluntary cooperation between the Member States. Certainly, at the moment it is difficult to get past each country's various examination systems and teaching philosophies to reach any objective comparison of the teaching standards of the countries. As a former lecturer myself, I would have welcomed a clear idea of how British teaching and educational standards compared to those of other European countries. It is important in this global age to have as broad an input as possible for the evaluation system. European comparisons will show up, one hopes, strengths but also weaknesses that are currently hidden by evaluation systems limited to a single educational system. One of the main aims of education is to provide for the world of work as well as providing a cultural base for Europe's young people. This report seeks a balance between the need for adequate preparation in both those fields. The possibility of comparing education systems across borders will, I hope, lead to improvements across European teaching establishments as schools learn from others outside their immediate view. The point made by Mrs Sanders-ten Holte about social exclusion is particularly valid. I would like to see whether there are differences in the pattern of the school day, whether this varies in different parts of Europe, and whether this offers ways of improving education. Then there is the use of compulsory sports activities: does this help in the educational system of different countries? Do different countries have different patterns? We would all be interested to know how the educational systems achieve competence in two modern languages in addition to the mother tongue. I suspect my own country will not do so well there but perhaps we would do better on the use of information technology. Finally, I would just like to say that the rapporteur's amendments calling for greater self-evaluation and participation of stakeholders inserts a valuable cog in the evaluation machine. The opinion of those within the educational system is often lost within the large civil service machines and bureaucracies which run schools. We must find ways which give power back to the schools and to the parents and to the students because that is where responsibility should lie.

Political group: PPE-DE