WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3333/98 by Roberto MEZZAROMA Culture
Date: 1998-11-10
Institutions: European Parliament, MEZZAROMA
Subjects: Italy, education policy, harmonisation of standards, higher education, recognition of diplomas

C 325/4

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

12.11.1999

of the Parliament. The report includes data on cases of selected zoonotic infections in man in the Member
States in 1996. No data are available on how many people died.

The reporting system referred above is based on Article 5 of the Directive 92/11/EEC. An analysis will begin in
1999 of the Member States’ monitoring systems on zoonoses in animals and in humans. Recently, the
Parliament and the Council adopted the Decision setting up the Community network for the epidemiological
surveillance and control of communicable diseases (2119/98/EC (3)). Together these databases, in addition to
those collected at national level and in other international organisations, such as WHO, will serve as important
tools in gathering the surveillance data and assisting the control of zoonoses. The accuracy and the
comparability of the data should be increased in order to allow more precise evaluation of trends and sources
of zoonoses.

(1) OJ L 22, 30.4.1997.
(2) OJ L 62, 15.3.1993.
(3) OJ L 268, 3.10.1998.

(1999/C 325/004)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3333/98

by Roberto Mezzaroma (PPE) to the Commission

(10 November 1998)

Subject: Culture

The Italian press has reported that degree courses at Italian universities are to be harmonized and made
equivalent to those in other countries, in particular an initial course lasting three years and called a ‘first degree
course’ and a one-year postgraduate specialization course corresponding to a European Master’s degree course.

Can the Commission say how this equivalence is to be achieved and how long it will take, and can it also say
whether there is a specific project for this purpose and how it is being structured?

Answer given by Mrs Cresson on behalf of the Commission

(13 January 1999)

The Commission assumes that the article in the Italian press refers to the joint declaration on the
harmonisation of the European higher education systems signed in Paris on 25 May 1998 by the higher
education ministers of Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom on the occasion of the 800th
anniversary of the Sorbonne.

The declaration underlines the exciting prospect of an open higher education area. To create this, various
obstacles need to be demolished and a common education framework developed, although national
differences must be respected. The declaration also indicates that a system appears to be emerging in which
two main phases B undergraduate and postgraduate B should be recognised in order to facilitate international
comparison and equivalence.

The Commission welcomes this declaration. However, as the organisation of higher education comes under
the responsibility of the Member States, the Commission merely announced that it was at the Member States’
disposal to share the experience it has acquired in the context of these European programmes and facilitate the
exchange of information.

The education ministers of the Member States concerned are planning another meeting in 1999, open to other
Member States, to examine in greater depth the subjects covered by the declaration.