Mr President, there is a degree of latent conflict between the principle of competition and the principle of cooperation. The European Union wants to see its university system compete with that of the United States, not only in terms of standards of excellence but also in terms of attracting students from third countries. The more it is able to do so, the more it will improve the balance between a crucial transatlantic alliance and western civilisation itself. It will also further strengthen the bases of democracy. To my knowledge, North American universities’ policies for attracting and retaining the finest minds are designed more to assure their own interests than those of the countries in which these minds originate. Cooperation, in this case, takes second place to competition. The Commission’s ideas in this field are somewhat more cautious, because they refer to encouraging ‘cooperative approaches’, in other words, approaches that ultimately seek to ensure the 'refoulement' of third country nationals who come to study for degrees in Europe. There are other aspects, however, that have given a clear advantage to the United States, since if we are to resolve the same problem in Europe particular attention must be paid to these aspects. Amongst others, these are the language, the quality of teaching and the reputation of the institutions and programmes, the variety of subjects these programmes cover, the recognition of diplomas awarded in the country of origin, legislation on residency, enrolment costs and the availability of scholarships. The use of only one language, the enormous competition between university institutions and the enormous variation in quality, the constant concern to attract and retain the finest brains to which I have just referred, and the great variation in the cost of enrolment and course fees, which are as a rule quite high, characterise an education system that attracts many more students from other countries than the European university system does. In Europe, another problem arises immediately as a result of the disproportionate number of students applying to universities in the United Kingdom, France and Germany compared to those applying to universities in the other Member States. Around three-quarters of these students apply to universities in the three countries to which I have referred. To this we should add the issue of Europe’s linguistic mosaic – for which, where higher education is concerned, a universal and satisfactory solution has still not been found – in order to ensure the balanced distribution of potential students. It goes without saying that language learning for university students is not the same as simply learning the basics of the language of the host country. However many courses in the language of the host country might have been provided before students attend an advanced course, however many parallel courses the universities open to their foreign students, it is clearly unrealistic to think that in a short space of time, we can reverse the trend that currently benefits the United Kingdom, France and Germany. This relative scepticism, Mr President, is not a reason to vote against the excellent report by Mrs De Sarnez, or to fail to applaud the excellent initiative by the Commission. It is a reason, however, to attempt to develop a solution to the set of problems to which I have referred – a solution that is still far from satisfactory – and also, for this very reason, to attempt to ensure that this set of problems is given an appropriate budgetary allocation.

Political group: PPE-DE