Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on "The European dimension of education: its nature, content and prospects"
Date: 2001-03-01
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: EU programme, access to information, cultural policy, education policy, new technology

11.5.2001

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Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on ‘The European dimension of education: its
nature, content and prospects’

(2001/C 139/16)

On 2 March 2000 the Economic and Social Committee, acting under the third paragraph of Rule 23 of
its Rules of Procedure, decided to draw up an opinion (1) on ‘The European dimension of education: its
nature, content and prospects’.

The Section for Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship, which was responsible for preparing the
Committee’s work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 31 January 2001. The rapporteur was
Mr Koryfı´dis and the co-rapporteur was Mr Rupp.

At its 379th plenary session (meeting of 1 March 2001), the Economic and Social Committee adopted
the following opinion by 100 votes to four with five abstentions.

1.

Introduction

1.1.
The information report entitled ‘The European dimen-
sion of education: its nature, content and prospects’ is now
part of the ESC’s body of work completed. The Committee’s
influence on the evolution of European education will be
evaluated in due course, as will the quality of its contribution.
But the above-mentioned report already provides a store of
facts and the perspectives of civil society organisations on the
subject of education. This report has already made an
important contribution, helping, however modestly, to bring
education to the forefront of political, economic and social
dialogue, which was one of its stated goals.

1.2.
Obviously, the information report largely determines
the content of this opinion. However, owing to circumstances,
the opinion clearly is not as extensive and does not cover all
the elements of the report. Both the information report and its
appendix will therefore be attached to the opinion and should
be seen as part and parcel of it.

1.3. While the information report was being prepared, and
during the Portuguese presidency (first half of 2000), there has
been intense activity on matters of education in all EU bodies
(European Parliament, Council and Commission). This activity

(1) On 27.5.1999 the Bureau of the Economic and Social Committee,
acting under Rule 26 of its Rules of Procedure, decided to draw
up an information report on: The European dimension of
education: its nature, content and prospects.
On 13.6.2000, after a debate, the Section for Employment, Social
Affairs and Citizenship, which was responsible for preparing the
Committee’s work on the subject, unanimously adopted the
information report drafted by the study group. The rapporteur
was Mr Koryfı´dis and the co-rapporteur was Mr Rupp. The
the plenary session of
Section’s decision was approved at
13.7.2000, and it was decided to forward the information report
to the other EU institutions.

was basically prompted by the realisation that education is not
just a means of
fostering development but an essential
component of development and at the same time one of its
most important objectives (2). The following decisions were
taken at the special meeting of the European Council (23 and
24 March 2000) and in the framework of the new strategic
objective of the EU for the coming decade ‘to become the most
competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the
world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and
better jobs and greater social cohesion’ (3):

— a new approach to education and training: an approach
that emphasises the need for Europe’s education and
training policies to adapt to the demands of the knowl-
edge society, and the need for ‘an improved level and
quality of employment’; an approach which essentially
changes the relationship between education and the
citizen, offering ‘learning and training opportunities tail-
ored to target groups at different stages of their lives’; an
approach resting on three basic pillars: ‘the development
of local learning centres, the promotion of new basic
skills, in particular in the information technologies, and
increased transparency of qualifications’ (4). As part of this
approach the European Council calls upon the Member
States, in line with their constitutional rules, the Council
and the Commission to take the necessary steps within
their areas of competence to meet the following targets:

— a substantial annual increase in per capita invest-

ment in human resources;

— the number of 18 to 24 year olds with only lower-
secondary level education who are not in further
education and training should be halved by 2010;

(2) UNESCO report ‘Education for the 21st century’, Introduction by

Jacques Delors.
(3) European Council

in Lisbon (23 and 24.3.2000), Presidency
conclusions (http://europa.eu.int/council/off/conclu/ mar2000/in-
dex.htm), point 5. See also the ESC opinion OJ C 117, 26.4.2000
on the Lisbon summit.

(4) Idem, point 25.

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— schools and training centres, all

linked to the
Internet, should be developed into multi-purpose
learning centres accessible to all, using the
local
most appropriate methods to address a wide range
of target groups; learning partnerships should be
established between schools, training centres, firms
and research facilities for their mutual benefit;

— a European framework should define the new basic
skills to be provided through lifelong learning:
IT skills, foreign languages, technological culture,
entrepreneurship and social skills; a European dip-
loma for basic IT skills, with decentralised certifi-
cation procedures, should be established in order to
promote digital literacy throughout the Union;

— define, by the end of 2000, the means for fostering
the mobility of students, teachers and training and
research staff both through making the best use of
existing Community programmes (Socrates, Leonar-
do, Youth), by removing obstacles and through
greater transparency in the recognition of qualifi-
cations and periods of study and training; to take
steps to remove obstacles to teachers’ mobility by
2002 and to attract high-quality teachers.

— a common European format should be developed
to be used on a voluntary
for curricula vitae,
in order to facilitate mobility by helping
basis,
the assessment of knowledge acquired, both by
education and training establishments and by
employers (1).

Similarly, the European Council ‘asks the Council (Education)
to undertake a general reflection on the concrete future
objectives of education systems, focusing on common con-
cerns and priorities while respecting national diversity, with a
view to contributing to the Luxembourg and Cardiff processes
and presenting a broader report to the European Council in
the Spring of 2001’ (2).

— designing an integrated action programme for an elec-
tronic Europe (e-Europe Action Plan). As part of this
programme, all schools in the EU are to have access to
the Internet by the end of 2001 and all the necessary
teaching staff are to be proficient in the use of the Internet
and multimedia resources by the end of 2002;

— creation of a European Area of Research and Innovation

with, inter alia, the following objectives (3):

— to develop appropriate mechanisms for networking
national and joint research programmes on a volun-
tary basis around freely chosen objectives;

— to catalogue and identify excellence in research;

— to improve the environment for private research

investment and R&D partnerships;

— to take steps to remove obstacles to the mobility of
researchers and to attract and retain high-quality
research talent in Europe;

— to ensure that a Community patent is available by
the end of 2001, including the utility model.

1.3.1.
The Council of Education Ministers (at its meeting
on 8 June 2000) then said that it was prepared to carry out
the mandate given to it by the (above-mentioned) European
Council (4). More specifically, it is prepared to go ahead with
drawing up a report on future challenges and objectives of
education systems, which according to the Lisbon conclusions
should be submitted to the extraordinary meeting of the
European Council in Stockholm next spring.

1.3.2.
The Education Council welcomed the Commission
communication of 24 May 2000 on the e-learning initiative
‘designing tomorrow’s education’. The initiative contains cer-
tain basic elements from the conclusions of the European
Council summit
in Lisbon in relation to developing the
knowledge society, its aim being to give specific form to the e-
Europe initiative in the sphere of education and training, i.e.
to specify the role of education in disseminating digital
technologies in Europe so that all Europeans have the skills
needed to use them. The same Council, having listened to the
European report on the quality of school education: sixteen
quality indicators and an account of developments in cooper-
ation on quality evaluation in school education, called on the
Commission to support these activities and ‘to establish a
data base to disseminate effective tools and instruments for
evaluating the quality of individual schools’ (5).

(1) Idem, point 26.
(2) Idem, point 27.

(3) For more details, see idem, point 13.
(4) Idem, point 27, and Education Council of 8.6.2000.
(5) See Press Release of the 2270th Council meeting (Education) on

8.6.2000.

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1.3.3.
Finally, the Santa Maria da Feira European Council of
19 and 20 June 2000 adopted the guidelines of the Council of
Education Ministers for future challenges and objectives facing
education systems in the knowledge society (1),
identifying
lifelong learning as a crucial policy for the development of
citizenship, social cohesion and employment.

1.3.4.
It is worth noting that the trend described above is
set to continue during the French Presidency (2) with work to
implement the above decisions and to elaborate and flesh
them out in the European Parliament and the Commission.
Specifically, the French Presidency is promoting, inter alia:

— the incorporation of education in the employment guide-

lines;

— the promotion of lifelong learning and its role in employ-

ment;

— the implementation of the eEurope action plan;

— the removal of the obstacles hampering the mobility of
students, teachers and researchers (meeting of education
ministers 30.9.2000);

— the future objectives of European education systems
(quality enhancement, easier access to education for all
EU citizens);

— promotion of the open method of coordination in line
with the conclusions of the Lisbon European Council;

— definition of the scope of education with regard to

employability.

1.3.4.2. With regard to mobility in particular, a crucially
important step was the resolution of the Nice European
Council (7 and 8 December 2000) which established ‘increas-
ing the mobility of young people, school children, students,
researchers, all those being educated and their teachers’ as a
major political objective to which the leaders of the 15 Member
States have now committed.

1.3.4.3.
Another important development is the fleshing out
of the concept of lifelong learning and of the means of
implementing it undertaken in a Memorandum drawn up by
the Commission (3). According to this Memorandum, lifelong
learning should serve the following two objectives, which are
equally important:

— completion of work on amending and simplifying the
directives concerning the recognition of qualifications;

— fostering active participation in the evolution of society,

and

— measures to enable young Europeans to acquire common
cultural references, from school age upward, by teaching
them two languages in addition to their mother tongue
and by introducing the European dimension into history
syllabi;

— the joint implementation at European level of a pro-

gramme of ‘electronic learning’.

An important development towards promoting the
1.3.4.1.
European dimension in education during the French Presidency
were the positions adopted by the Council of Education
Ministers on 9 November 2000 concerning:

— mobility and the associated action plan (42 indicative
measures to increase mobility and remove obstacles to
it);

— increasing employability.

1.4.
The ESC feels that the Lisbon European Council’s
response to the current requirements in the field of education
in Europe is of particular importance and potentially crucial to
the entire future of Europe. It has created the preconditions
in future of a European
necessary for the establishment
education domain able to function in a complementary role
and filling any gaps in existing national and regional education
systems. It also has the potential to rally large sections of
European society to share in the shaping of the new reality
which is anyway emerging day by day thanks to global
developments on the technological, economic, social and
political levels.

1.4.1.
Against this background, the ESC is reorienting its
work on education and training on the basis of the above,
focusing considerable attention on both the general philosophy
underlying the Council’s approach and each specific proposal
for action.

(1) European Council in Santa Maria da Feira (19 and 20.6.2000),

point 32 (http://ue.eu.int/en/info/eurocouncil/index.htm).

(2) Cf. ‘The Priorities of the French Presidency’, point 1, second indent

(http://presidence-europe.fr/pfue/static/acces3.htm).

(3) See SEC (2000) 1832.

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1.4.2.
The ESC is pleased to note that the decisions of the
Lisbon European Council have confirmed the concerns that it
has been expressing for some time with regard to education in
Europe and the future thereof. It is also pleased to note that
many of the positions it has taken to date have been adopted
and promoted by these decisions. That is why, drawing on its
expertise and the relevant work done, it is glad to express its
views both on the procedure and the substance of what was
decided in Lisbon. These views are obviously intended to fill
any gaps, to clarify any unclear points and to flesh out others.

rounded individuals, both culturally and socially. It requires
new approaches in defining the duration, domains, conditions
and means of learning and education, and, ultimately, the
setting-up of a new type of school with (2):

— broader objectives than at present (in response to the
requirements created by the information and knowledge
societies and diversity as well as the new situation in
Europe and economic globalisation);

2. General comments and observations

2.1.
The future of education in Europe, and its role in
European integration, have on occasion been a subject of
intense discussion and disagreement in the EU. These differ-
ences of opinion have made it difficult to frame a European
education strategy, which has been detrimental to the EU’s
position. To date, European involvement in the evolution of
education has been limited largely to specific European
programmes for individual areas and purposes. Many Member
States’ education systems have only a limited European
perspective and, of course, very little European content (1).

2.2.
The ESC accepts and endorses the view that ‘education
systems in the Member States, with their differences and
idiosyncrasies, are certainly a priceless resource that must not
be lost, but rather harnessed’ (1).
It also understands the
obstacles and difficulties faced in framing an education policy
with a European perspective and content. However, it would
also stress the importance and necessity of developing a policy
to modernise education substantially in terms of both quality
and quantity, as well as infrastructure (2). Modernisation means
seeking a new balance between the traditional European
system, the needs created by the current situation in Europe
and in particular future needs arising from the European
perspective. This modernisation should be based on the
principle that education does not serve the needs of the
economy alone, but also the wider goal of producing well-

— a different structure (in response to the new circumstances

created by thinking in terms of lifelong learning);

— broader field of learning (in response to the need for
compulsory education for a broader age range, and for
lifelong learning);

— modern resources, methods and curricula (application
and utilisation of new technologies, especially IT,
in
educational procedures and practice).

The ESC regards as very important and welcomes the
2.3.
developments that took place at the extraordinary European
Council of Lisbon, the European Councils of Santa Maria da
Feira and Nice, and the Councils of Education Ministers of
17 December 1999, 8 June 2000 (3) and 9 November 2000. It
importance attached to
particularly welcomes the political
lifelong learning, which has been effective in some Member
States for many years. Development of lifelong learning ‘as a
basic component of the European social model’ — in cooper-
ation with the social partners and within a European frame-
work defining the skills to be provided (4) — can certainly be
described as a major step forward. The same can be said for
the calls of the above-mentioned European Council upon the
Member States, the Council of Ministers and the Commission
to take the necessary measures within their spheres of com-
petence to achieve, among others, the following goals:

— a substantial annual increase in per capita investment in

human resources;

— conversion of schools and training centres into multipur-
pose local learning centres connected to the Internet,
accessible to all and using the most appropriate methods
to address a wide range of target groups (5).

(1) http://www.ces.eu.int/en/org/fr–org–6–sections.htm.
(2) Idem, point 3.1.

24.3.2000, points 26 and 29.

(5) Idem, point 26.

(3) See Introduction above, points .3, 1.3.1 and 1.3.2.
(4) Presidency conclusions (European Council of Lisbon), 23 and

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Despite the progress made in creating mobility and a
2.4.
levels and in all
dynamic for change in education (at all
the ESC calls for faster implementation of the
respects),
positions adopted by the extraordinary European Council in
Lisbon. It also feels that an overall effort is required to clarify
terms and to define more clearly the responsibilities and roles
which will fall to the various levels involved in education.
Lastly, it would propose continuous monitoring and evaluation
of all measures at all levels, an exercise which the ESC is willing
to take part in.

2.4.1.3.
The vast majority of civil society organisations
consider education to be both a European and a national issue.
This means, among other things, reinforcing the relevant
European dialogue and strengthening consultation mechan-
isms between the European institutions and the Member States
on all matters relating to education. The ESC feels that the all
the candidate countries should take part in the process of
consultation and social dialogue.

2.4.1. With this in mind, the ESC offers the following
comments and suggestions, based on its information report
on the European dimension in education, as well as other
recent documents(1):

2.4.1.4.
The ESC also considers that this new approach to
education, this new type of school as described above should
be imbued from within with a uniform rationale and able to
meet the needs of the European, national and local dimensions
of education. In particular, it must be able to meet:

Formal education is a process based primarily on
2.4.1.1.
the values of humanism. Any education planning option must
be compatible with these values. Especially today, when the
balance is tipped dangerously in favour of rushing to adapt
to the new technological and economic circumstances, the
humanistic dimension of education must be afforded particular
attention. The new technological and economic situation
becomes comprehensible and acceptable in as far as it serves
mankind and society. The 15 leaders of the Member States and
the European Council are the guarantors for European society
that education in Europe will not lose sight of its key objectives
and its humanistic identity.

2.4.1.2.
Adapting education to the new circumstances and
increasing its effectiveness may be achieved by reinforcing its
humanistic identity and choosing options like those advocated
by the Lisbon European Council, options which will build
bridges of communication and cooperation between national
and regional education systems, forming a European education
domain where required while respecting the diversity and
variety of national systems and creating the conditions for
effectively overcoming the obstacles which arise in the process
of transition towards the information society and a Europe of
knowledge.

(1) ‘Employment, Economic Reform and Social Cohesion’ — OJ
C 117 of 26.4.2000. ‘European cooperation in quality evaluation
in school education’ — OJ C 168 of 16.6.2000.

— Europe’s multicultural and multilingual needs (those
arising from migration, enlargement and economic glo-
balisation);

— the needs created by free movement of Europe’s citizens

(e.g. recognition of qualifications);

— the needs arising from the institution of lifelong learning.

2.4.1.5.
The areas of education relating to European inte-
gration and the shaping of the European citizen (pro-active,
multicultural, multilingual) should be areas of shared responsi-
bility, as well any other areas which, with the consent of the
Member States, can be managed in concert.

2.4.1.6.
An open method of coordination should be used
for planning and developing lifelong learning and matters
relating to the information and knowledge-based society (new
spheres) and for developing a modern European scientific
institute for educational research. The European institute
should be concerned with statistical
trends in education,
providing Member States with valuable European data and
thereby helping to make the debate more objective. It is worth
noting that European action on education is more readily
accepted by local communities when it has to do with
new areas of education and is based on scientific findings.
Conversely, action which concerns the traditional areas of
education is not accepted, and even less so if it is not backed
up by scientific evidence.

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2.5.
The ESC is particularly interested in the question of
creating a European education domain, which, in the light of
recent developments, is taking on a broader scope to become
a European domain of
learning and education. The ESC
includes within this domain not only the European dimension
of education, but also any other current
learning-related
challenge or procedure of concern to the European citizen. This
domain therefore comprises lifelong learning and familiarising
Europeans — regardless of their age — with the thinking and
mechanisms of
It also includes
the information society.
enabling every European citizen to assimilate and be aware of
the new circumstances created by globalisation whatever form
they take, as well as the difficult process of adapting to the
new pace of operation and the rapid changes which modern
technology has imposed. Lastly, it includes mapping out the
new education of the European citizen, the education of
European integration, which, without being removed form its
historical roots, will define Europe and its citizens in the new
millennium.

recent developments in the European Council, and of its own
work:

3.1.1.
A concerted effort must be made without delay to
attain the objectives and implement the decisions of the
European Councils of Lisbon, Santa Maria da Feira and Nice.
The most important issue here is basically that of informing
those involved in national education systems and the general
public. The ESC believes that primary responsibility for a well-
planned and integrated information campaign should be
assigned to the Commission. Players in the existing education
system (teachers, parents, pupils/students) can play an
important role in this campaign, as well, of course, as the
social partners and civil society organisations in general.

3.1.2.
Certain objectives, roles and responsibilities should
be defined in more specific terms. In particular, there is an
urgent need to identify, clarify and publicise:

2.5.1.
The relationship between the European domain of
learning and education and the corresponding national and
regional domains must not be a competitive one. It must be
one of cooperation, complementarity and mutual enrichment.
The setting of common goals and the methods for achieving
them, exchanges of good practice,
teacher and student
mobility, networking, quality reports and comparative stat-
istics, electronic communication inter alia provide the basis
for the interface of national education policies and the forum
for common European-level and European-dimension choices
and actions on education (content).

2.5.2.
Against this background the ESC feels that the time
is ripe for the EU to take measures of a strategic nature on
education (defining the nature and content of the European
domain of learning and education). But this requires a carefully
prepared and substantive dialogue between all the levels and
parties, a dialogue which in any case has already been opened
up by the Lisbon decisions and which the ESC is ready to take
part in.

3.

Specific comments

— the objectives of lifelong learning;

— new basic skills;

— aptitude testing methods;

— the role that the new type of school in the wider sense
must play as a multipurpose local learning centre (1);

— the new role of further education and the general context
in which the various facets of education will develop in
the future.

3.1.2.1.
The ESC has a particular position on lifelong
learning, which it sees as the key to familiarising the general
public with the rationale behind the information society (2),
new technologies and the so-called new economy. The Com-
mittee would hope that it would cater to the need to adapt to
the new entrepreneurial spirit and to cultivate new social skills.
It also considers this to be the intelligent response to the new
rhythms, speeds and approaches imposed by the above
challenges, a response through which today’s pro-active Euro-
peans can join in shaping the new global political, economic,
social and technological landscape.

3.1.2.2.
The ESC proposes the development of a series of
pioneering European pilot actions outside the scope of existing
models concerned with networking for the exchange of
experience, software, summer exchange programmes, making
the most of existing European educational establishments etc.

3.1.
As part of this dialogue, the ESC would also make the
following proposals in particular, on the basis of relevant

(1) Cf. Presidency conclusions (European Council in Lisbon), 23 and

24.3.2000, point 26, third indent.

(2) OJ C 117, 26.4.2000.

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3.1.2.3.
The ESC would emphasise the limited effectiveness
of the school and its multifunctional dimension in its present
role. It points out that, while schools cannot solve all of
society’s problems, they can certainly help to address them.
This being so, the ESC proposes that schools should be:

— democratic, inclusive and progressive in the way they are

designed and function;

— effective in the way plans are implemented;

— inclusive and multifunctional,

in the sense of being
accessible to everybody in their catchment area (and
especially sensitive to particularity and diversity) through-
out their life, by helping to meet their needs in terms of
personal self-fulfilment and employment;

— flexibly and actively adapted to the rhythms and speeds

of all types of change;

— innovative in research and in problem-solving;

— enterprising in their cooperative aspects, in order to solve
labour market and employment problems and to promote
the spirit of enterprise;

— attractive, in the sense of attracting the citizens around
them (especially people with special needs), but also in
the sense of attracting and keeping talented individuals as
educators;

— communicative,

in the sense of seeking ever more
exchanges, contacts and networking opportunities within
Europe; discerning, in the sense of adopting a rationale
and mechanisms for constantly seeking and checking the
validity of knowledge; informative, in the sense of being
able to inform citizens continually and reliably;

— local and regional, in the sense of having direct links to

the local community and citizens;

— national,

in the sense of protecting, cultivating and

developing particular national cultural features;

— European, in the sense not just of being part of and
helping to shape the modern European landscape, but
also of cultivating, developing and defending European

values, European culture, Europe’s social acquis and the
history of the European project (the reasons which gave
its
rise to the project,
policy, the position of its citizens, and their rights and
obligations).

the functioning of

the EU,

The ESC would point out the following on the
3.1.2.4.
terms and content of the various forms and dimensions of
education:

— Lifelong learning must be closely integrated with formal
education. Among other things, this means that formal
education should now acquire a long-term dimension
lifelong learning should be identified as a
and that
political obligation.
the interface
between compulsory education and lifelong learning
should be seamless and well-established and that each
should draw on the other.

It also means that

— Pre-school education is the first — and a very important
— part of compulsory education and the length of
compulsory formal education — excluding pre-school
education — should comply with the new objectives. The
curriculum for this period should be expanded to include
the skills and basic syllabus required by the new chal-
lenges (information society,
the new economy, new
situation in Europe, etc.). It is during this period too
that action should be taken to tackle the problems of
functional and technical illiteracy to allow lifelong learn-
ing to take place unhindered.

— Educational care for boys and girls with special edu-
cational needs should start as soon as circumstances
giving rise to such care become apparent, whatever the
age of the child, or as soon the risk of a specific learning
difficulty is detected.

4. Recommendations

Following the recent decisions of major importance for
European education and on the basis of:

— the views expressed by the economic and social interest

groups it represents and

— its work to date on education and training,

the ESC would make the following recommendations to the
European Parliament, the Council and the Commission:

4.1.
That efforts to construct a genuine European domain
of education and learning be continued and intensified. This
domain will turn our diversity to account, transforming it into
complementarity, shaping the common European political
consciousness which is now required.
It will function in
collaboration with and as a complement to national and
regional domains, with each drawing on the other. Such an
educational domain is clearly a prerequisite for the further
growth of our economic output and results. As part of an

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open method of coordination and clearly defined comparative
assessment, the ESC recommends that the European domain
should encompass:

— areas relating to European integration and the shaping of
the consciousness of the modern European citizen;

— new areas of education, such as lifelong learning and
those relating to the information society and the new
economy.

learning and education is constructed,

That particular attention be paid to how this European
4.2.
domain of
taking
account of the scale of the change required in the thinking of
individuals and local communities. It should be clear that the
process of achieving the Europe of knowledge and the new
economy should be a conscious and consensual one. It should
also be made clear that modernisation of schools means
primarily adapting them to meet the needs of today’s citizens
and society, such as those created by European integration,
globalisation, modern technologies and employability.

4.3.
That priority be given to mobility of all kinds in
education: electronic and physical mobility, the mobility of
educators, pupils and students, and the mobility of new ideas
and best practice. The action plan on this subject and the
resolution of the Nice European Council are extremely positive
steps in this respect, which may serve to strengthen or build
new bridges between national education systems. For the ESC,
the ultimate goal of all efforts to remove obstacles to mobility
in education must be every European citizen having the
opportunity to study — even for a short period — in an EU
country other than his or her own. In the ESC’s view, this
should be a right for European citizens.

4.4.
For the ESC, lifelong learning is the key to familiarising
European citizens with the information society, new tech-
nologies and the new economy. It therefore recommends that
as much as possible be made of the Commission Memorandum

Brussels, 1 March 2001.

on lifelong learning, in cooperation with the social partners. It
also recommends that local multipurpose learning centres be
developed as soon as possible to provide this service amongst
others.

4.5.
The ESC sees the eLearning initiative as the cornerstone
of Europe’s effort to bring its citizens into the digital age, and
more specifically to promote Internet use, the networking of
educational establishments and the development of virtual
mobility. It therefore recommends removal as soon as possible
of the obstacles standing in the way of effective development
of the initiative, foremost among which are the cost and
quality of the relevant electronic infrastructure, connection
costs, digital content and the linguistic reality of the Internet.

4.6.
The ESC feels that the proposed method of open
coordination, based on comparative assessment, will work
well, promoting the construction of a dynamic European
domain of learning and education. It therefore recommends
that particular care be taken to ensure the reliability and
comparability of the data in question.

4.7.
Beyond the European dimension in education and the
European domain of learning and education, the ESC would
stress the need for education to continue to be based on the
global values of humanity. It therefore recommends that all
educational planning options be compatible with these values.

4.8.
Recognising and emphasising the major role of edu-
cation in the future of European integration, the ESC rec-
ommends that every effort be made to keep it at the forefront
of European political, economic and social life. This can be
achieved by developing an open, continuous and substantive
dialogue on what is to become of education in Europe in the
21st century involving all parties: the European institutions,
Member States and the applicant countries; the social partners
and all other types of economic and social organisations;
experts on education and all committed European citizens.
The ESC is prepared to participate in this dialogue.

The President

of the Economic and Social Committee

Göke FRERICHS