No C 337/60 Official Journal of the European Communities 31. 12. 88 
2.5. Article 5 (2) 
The entire paragraph should be replaced by the fol­
lowing: 
'In determining whether the principle of equality 
has been infringed in any individual case, indirect 
discrimination may be deemed to have occurred 
even if this was not the respondent's intention.' 
This would clarify the respondent's rights. 
Done at Brussels, 27 October 1988. 
I. General comments 
1. The Committee takes the view that the time has 
come for both national and Community educational 
policies to face up to the challenges confronting the 
educational system and the people of Europe, as the 
Member States grow even closer together, This is par­
ticularly relevant against the background of the com­
pletion of the Internal Market and the accompanying 
changes designed to create a citizens' Europe and opti­
mum economic and social conditions. 
The Commission's initiative is to be particularly wel­
comed since no guidelines for the educational and cul­
tural sectors can be derived from the Treaty of Rome. 
The Commission has correctly chosen to present its 
document in the form of a Communication. 2.6. Article 6 
Add at the end: '... employment agencies, training 
establishement, etc.'. 
2.7. Article 8 (2) 
After the words 'European Parliament' insert: '...and 
the Economic and Social Committee'. 
The Chairman 
of the Economic and Social Committee 
Alberto MASPRONE 
2. The Committee also believes that greater conti­
nuity is needed in cooperation on educational policy, 
given its increasing importance for furthering and flesh­
ing out the process of European unification. Medium-
term priorities for subjects to be dealt with and action 
to be taken must be established to this end. 
3. The Committee therefore considers the Communi­
cation to be an important document on three counts: 
3.1. Firstly, it provides a further stimulus to reflect 
on certain basic objectives for the education of the 
rising generation with a view to furthering the cultural 
and economic integration of the Member States, with 
the opportunities and challenges which this entails. 
An intensive information exchange with the aim of 
establishing a broad consensus between those respon­
sible for educational policy at national and Community Opinion on the education in the European Community, 
medium-term perspectives, 1988-1992 
(88/C 337/20) 
On 25 May 1988, the Commission decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, 
under Article 198 of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, on edu­
cation in the European Community, medium-term perspectives, 1988-1992. 
The section for social, family, educational and cultural affairs, which was responsible for 
preparing the Committee's work on the subject, adopted its Opinion on 13 October 1988. 
The rapporteur was Mr Nierhaus. 
At its 259th plenary session (meeting of 27 October 1988) the Economic and Social Committee 
unanimously adopted the following Opinion. 
31. 12. 88 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 337/61 
level is an essential prerequisite for far-reaching con­
crete measures. 
3.2. Secondly, the Communication specifies the most 
pressing tasks which must be coordinated and dealt 
with as a prerequisite for freedom of movement and 
freedom of establishment throughout the Community. 
The Committee attaches great importance to the 
announced work schedule for the period up until 1992 
in conjunction with completion of the Internal Market. 
3.3. Finally, the Communication takes stock of all 
current programmes and activities relating to edu­
cational policy. In the Committee's opinion, this assess­
ment could be pursued later in greater depth, possibly 
in a separate Commission Communication and with a 
summary of interim results. The individuals and bodies 
involved at national and Community level would thus 
have access to the latest information available on exist­
ing programmes. 
4. Unfortunately, we have to agree with the Com­
mission that the various measures taken by the Com­
munity in the educational sector over the past few years 
have tended to be piecemeal and fragmentary. One 
reason for this is that certain projects which relate to 
education and training are frequently subsumed under 
more comprehensive programmes—e.g. those connec­
ted with the development of new technologies—and 
financed accordingly (as in the context of ESPRIT). 
II. Specific comments 
1. A first step towards common educational objec­
tives in the schools of the Member States lies in respond­
ing to the economic and social challenge posed by the 
development and dissemination of the new technologies 
in all the highly industrialized countries. This creates a 
growing need for highly skilled personnel in a labour 
market which is overall becoming more complex. Less-
skilled and disadvantaged groups run the risk of losing 
any prospects of employment and becoming margina­
lized. 
This kind of polarization into high living-standard 
groups and marginal groups would in the long term 
put unacceptable economic and social strains on society 
which could have adverse repercussions for European 
policy. 
The less-developed regions of the Community would 
be harder hit by such a trend. 
The Committee therefore endorses the Commission's 
view that educational policy, too, should play a major 
role in reducing regional and social inequalities, while 
providing, in general terms, the key to full participation 
in society. National initiatives and also Community aid from, for 
example, the regional and social funds, must be further 
stepped up in the medium-term up until 1992. 
2. The technological challenge also calls, however, 
for another response. At the last European Council in 
Hanover, the Heads of State and Government particu­
larly stressed the social dimension of economic inte­
gration, for which a consensus between all economic 
and social groups was required. 
The acceptance of the new technologies with their 
different, higher job performance requirements means 
changed skill profiles. In order to meet these new 
requirements, primary and compulsory school edu­
cation must include the all-round development of the 
personality with a view to the acquisition of social 
skills. The objectives of the educational and training 
system must lay equal emphasis on the production of 
vocationally skilled manpower and the development of 
individuals with creative, artistic, linguistic and social 
skills. Such objectives are entirely compatible with the 
demands made on people at work, in society and in the 
personal sphere. 
The Commission document barely mentions this aspect 
of educational policy. It is, however, an important 
precondition for encouraging a spirit of enterprise and 
adaptability by overcoming the traditional distinction 
between general education and vocational or technical 
training. The Commission should devote more atten­
tion to this aspect and tackle it separately. In this and 
where appropriate, other contexts, the opportunities 
held out by the European Centre for the Development 
of Vocational Training (Cedefop) should be used. 
3. The European Community is not merely a net­
work of formal regulations, political stratements of 
intent and market mechanisms. However important 
these may be for integration, they are not in the final 
instance the cause but can in the long-term only be the 
result of a growing European consciousness among 
young people. 
Starting from this premise, the Committee supports all 
measures designed to lay more emphasis on the Euro­
pean dimension in school curricula. 
Although there is virtually no scope for binding pro­
visions in this area, the Community should make pro­
posals and provide effective incentives for to national 
educational and training authorities. The Commission 
should, in particular, devise syllabus modules and edu­
cational material conveying an objective image of the 
Community geared to the goals of the Treaty of Rome. 
While generally positive in their attitude to the Com­
munity, young people do not—according to the survey 
quoted—have sufficient information, and the Com­
munity emphatically supports the further measures 
planned {cf. point 3.10 of the Communication) in 
No C 337/62 Official Journal of the European Communities 31. 12. 88 
addition to existing programmes (EURYDICE, ERAS­
MUS, COMETT, etc.). 
4. In this context, the Committee would also stress 
the significance of the «YOUTH for Europe» pro­
gramme, since the best way to raise European con­
sciousness would be for young people from the different 
Member States to get to know each other. In view of 
the Community-wide interest in completing the internal 
market by 1992, the Committee considered that the 
funding for this programme should be considerably 
stepped up and that the application of this programme 
should inter alia be strongly directed to those already 
in work as well as to those in education. 
The generation now actively involved in creating Euro­
pe should be aware that young people are also following 
with a critical eye precisely those efforts towards econ­
omic and political unification which have not been a 
convincing success to date. The European content of 
school curricula will be all the more effective and per­
suasive if the state of the Community and its impact 
and legislation are seen positively by all European citi­
zens, and young people in particular. 
The Committee cannot but fully endorse the Com­
mission's view that young people must be equipped to 
exercise their right to vote in the direct elections to 
the European Parliament. Young people are, however, 
awaiting a convincing response to the question as to 
what decision-making powers the directly-elected Par­
liament has. It is in fact a two-way process; what we 
may not be able to achieve, we hope that the young 
people educated to be true Europeans will transform 
into reality. 
5. The Commission Communication correctly stress­
es the specific importance of cooperation between 
schools and industry. In the training and furhter train­
ing sector, cooperation of this kind is particularly essen­
tial and could contribute significantly to improving 
workers' skills. This applies, for example, to dual 
vocational training systems, cooperation between 
industry and further training establishments or univer­
sities at local level and the integration or practical 
training periods in industry into teacher-training and 
further training courses. Since theory is becoming 
increasingly important in training programmes (due in 
particular to the penetration of the new technologies 
into many vocational fields) and since the implemen­
tation of training programmes at the workplace is sub­
ject to rapid change, schools and firms must cooperate 
closely on training and further training in order to 
equip workers with the necessary skills. 
The Committee therefore awaits with great interest the 
initial proposals for a Community strategy on continu­
ing training and training in firms, which should be 
consolidated as part of workers' rights, especially since 
the Commission intends to investigate in particular what contribution vocational training can make to com­
batting unemployment. 
The depressing level of unemployment in the Com­
munity is in itself an economic and social problem of 
the highest order. It could also be an obstacle to the 
"acceptance of foreigners" in the context of the freedom 
of establishment which it would be difficult for edu­
cational policy alone to deal with. 
6. One of the Community's main problems which 
may become more apparent in the context of 1992 
is its multilingualism. The Committee welcomes and 
supports all Community efforts to improve teaching of 
Member State languages in schools. Some command 
of Community languages is becoming one of several 
essential qualifications for virtually the entire working 
population and knowledge of Community languages 
will be of considerable use to all Community citizens. 
The Committee would appeal in particular to the Mem­
ber States here, since Community action and pro­
grammes can provide no more than a stimulus and 
a back-up. The Community should request and even 
require the Member States to publish the steps which 
they are taking to ensure that young people are given 
every opportunity to develop linguistically, in particular 
by providing sufficient teachers and teaching materials. 
The mass media should be used here. 
There is a case for introducing compulsory tuition in 
some Community languages. The provision of tuition 
in all official EC languages in national educational 
systems would, however, be an extremely ambitious 
long-term objective. 
Member States should at all events be urged to intro­
duce, where they have not already done so, the compul­
sory or at least optional teaching of a Community 
language in primary schools. 
The Commission correctly expresses concern that the 
children of migrant workers could become a new disad­
vantaged group if language barriers prove to be an 
insurmountable obstacle to integration in schools and 
society. Apart from bilateral cultural agreements, the 
Community must use existing Community Directives (*) 
more effectively to ensure that the children and young 
people concerned are given the chance to integrate 
linguistically in the host country. 
(!) Cf. Directive of 25 July 1977 on the education of the children 
of migrant workers (OJ No L 199, 6. 8. 1977). 
31. 12. 88 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 337/63 
7. The improvement of all aspects of environmental 
protection will be one of the major problems, if not the 
major problem, facing the Community in the coming 
decades. It is essential to instil and develop an awareness 
of the environment amongst the younger generation, if 
the technical regulations and political decisions in this 
area are to be accepted. The Committee regrets that the 
Communication merely skirts around this important 
educational objective and does not accord in the priority 
which it deserves amongst the common objectives of 
educational policy. 
The Committee therefore recommends that the Com­
mission should in its "medium-term perspectives" 
establish links with its "proposal for a Council Decision 
on preventing environmental damage by the implemen­
tation of education and training measures", [doc. 
COM(88) 202 final] with a view to coordination and 
additions as appropriate. 
8. Besides the more fundamental problems of a com­
mon educational policy, certain practical measures are 
urgently required. The Commission Communication 
states that Council decisions are pending on these. A 
major requirement in connection with the completion 
of the internal market is the mutual recognition of 
educational and vocational diplomas. The Committee 
would expect the following matters to be tackled vigor­
ously or further and earnestly pursued: 
— the reciprocal recognition of university-entrance 
qualifications, 
— the reciprocal recognition of school-leaving qualifi­
cations, particularly for compulsory education, 
— the reciprocal recognition of professional or 
vocational qualifications, 
— the reciprocal recognition of third-level qualifi­
cations i1). 
(') Common position adopted by the Council on 30 June 1988 
with a view to the adoption of the Council Directive on 
the general system for the recognition of higher education 
diplomas awarded on completion of professional education 
and training of at least 3 years' duration. 
Done at Brussels, 27 October 1988. The Committee is aware that this will be a difficult 
undertaking, since such recognition will not be preceded 
by the harmonization of educational systems, which 
might in fact not even be desirable in all sectors. The 
recognition of qualifications cannot therefore be a pure 
formality—the education/training they reflect will have 
to be assessed and weighted accordingly. Since purely 
bilateral agreements will not be adequate in connection 
with the completion of the internal market, the Com­
munity itself should initiate the necessary Community-
wide arrangements. 
9. The Committee also believes, however, that the 
Commission should address and implement a number 
of important initiatives in the short term. These would 
include: 
— the inclusion of European policy issues in teacher 
training and further training, in particular, in order 
to secure highly qualified teachers and instructors, 
— the exchange of tried and tested training systems 
and their reciprocal use in the different Member 
States, 
— the use of suitable new techniques in training and 
further training, 
— the stepping-up of educational and vocational guid­
ance in connection with the completion of the inter­
nal market in 1992. 
10. Since school-leavers in 1992 will be confronted 
with a Community-wide labour market, schools must 
begin immediately to provide information on oppor­
tunities for vocational training and employment within 
the Community. 
The Chairman 
of the Economic and Social Committee 
Alberto MASPRONE