WRITTEN QUESTION E-3923/97 by Hedwig Keppelhoff-Wiechert (PPE) to the Commission (11 December 1997)

Subject: Help for school pupils under the Comenius programme

The EU's Comenius programme offers European schools a number of possibilities for cooperation. Comenius builds on the experiences gained in the Member States' various pilot projects, which were developed to reinforce the European dimension in education. Action 1 provides help for schools which are working together on a 'European education project'. Unfortunately, however, the success of this programme is being held back by certain regulations.

1. Whereas during the pilot phase, schools were free to use the funds allocated to them according to their needs, including for travel by pupils, this is now expressly prohibited. What is the Commission's reason for this?

2. Is the Commission aware that many projects may collapse because of this decision, as the financial burden cannot be borne by the pupils?

3. How does the Commission explain, on the other hand, its funding of travel costs for school heads?

4. Does the Commission envisage the possibility of allowing schools which are involved in a project to make their own decisions on the use of the funding made available to them?

Answer given by Mrs Cresson on behalf of the Commission (29 January 1998)

The objective of the Comenius chapter of the Socrates programme is to allow as many school pupils as possible to benefit from the possibilities offered by European cooperation. In view of the necessarily limited resources available under Socrates, it is not possible to finance pupil mobility. In some countries, the demand expressed by schools is already well in excess of the available resources, which is why it is not possible to continue funding pupil mobility as from the transition from pilot phase to programme. The concept of a European education project consists in allowing pupils from several Member States participating in the programme to work together regularly for at least one school year. Teachers and pupils must therefore set up means of communicating - particularly electronic means - as regularly as possible during the school year. The absence of pupil mobility requires a real pedagogical effort on the part of teachers, in order to make projects attractive and give them life by enhancing their subject matter compared with projects centred around a traditional exchange of pupils.

Community financial aid may be used to fund mobility for teachers and heads of establishments involved in European education projects, to allow them to develop a common work programme and enhance the subject matter of the project. It is precisely because the available resources are insufficient to finance pupil mobility that it is important for teachers to meet in order to give projects a genuine European dimension by allowing their pupils to benefit from the results of teachers' work in the partner countries.

It is important for the Commission, in agreement with the Member States participating in the programme, to lay down procedures for the use of Community financial assistance by schools, so as to ensure optimum use of Community funds and a certain measure of coherence of activities in the Member States. As European education projects involve cooperation between several schools in several Member States, it is necessary to establish common basic rules.