European Parliament resolution on initiatives to complement school curricula providing appropriate support measures to include the European dimension (2006/2041(INI))
Date: 2006-09-26
Institutions: Committee on Culture and Education, European Parliament
Subjects: European citizenship, educational system, multilingualism, teaching curriculum, vision of Europe

C 306 E/100

Official Journal of the European Union

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15.12.2006

Tuesday 26 September 2006

20.
Stresses the decisive role of the media in promoting the protection of human rights in developing
countries and in raising public awareness in countries in the West and, by extension, increasing their con-
tribution to humanitarian aid;

21.
Calls on governments and public authorities throughout the world to end in particular the culture of
impunity regarding violence against journalists by investigating and punishing those responsible for attacks
on media professionals, and by taking the necessary precautions that make it possible for journalists to
continue to provide citizens with the essential knowledge and objective information that flow from a free
and independent press;

22.
Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission, to the govern-
ments and parliaments of the Member States and of the acceding countries, to the ACP-EU Council of
Ministers, to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and to the President of the World Bank.

P6_TA(2006)0361

The European dimension of school teaching materials

European Parliament

resolution on initiatives

to complement

school curricula providing

appropriate support measures to include the European dimension (2006/2041(INI))

The European Parliament,

— having regard to Article 149 of the EC Treaty,

— having regard to the resolution for enhancing the European dimension in education (1) which the Euro-
pean Council and the Ministers of Education meeting within the Council adopted on 24 May 1988,

— having regard to the Green Paper on the European dimension of education (COM(1993)0457),

— having regard to the Commission's Communication entitled ‘A New Framework Strategy for

Multilingualism’ (COM(2005)0596),

— having regard to the joint interim report of the Council and the Commission on the implementation of
the detailed work programme on the follow-up of the objectives of education and training systems in
Europe entitled ‘Education and training 2010’ The success of the Lisbon strategy hinges on urgent
reforms (2),

— having regard to Rule 45 of its Rules of Procedure,

— having regard to the report of the Committee on Culture and Education (A6-0267/2006),

A. whereas the European dimension has become in recent decades an increasingly important aspect of

education, especially in national school curricula,

B. whereas the European Parliament is already involved in this field, particularly with the Hearing on ‘The

European Dimension in History Teaching’ of 7 April 2004,

C. whereas initiatives have already been taken by national authorities in Member States such as Austria,
Germany, Portugal, the Netherlands, the UK, Slovenia and Spain on the subject of Europe's place
in education and whereas many initiatives have also been taken in this area by non-governmental
organisations,

(1) OJ C 177, 6.7.1988, p. 5.
(2) OJ C 104, 30.4.2004, p. 1.

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Tuesday 26 September 2006

D. whereas the linguistic aspect appears to be fundamental

in strengthening the European dimension,
proficiency in foreign languages being a part of the basic set of skills of a typical European citizen
living, studying, working and generally circulating in the European Union,

E. whereas disparities exist between and within Member States where the inclusion of the European

dimension in education is concerned,

F. whereas the importance of the Comenius and Lingua programmes must be borne in mind in this

respect,

G. whereas the information about Europe that is conveyed to pupils, teachers and students varies widely
from country to country and whereas efforts must be made to agree on a common understanding of
history and a definition of European values,

H. whereas the main obstacles include the still limited scale of cross-border initiatives and programmes, a
lack of coordination between initiatives, a lack of visibility and accessibility, as well as inadequate or
unsuitable tools for carrying out these tasks,

I. whereas there are many obstacles and difficulties which currently face teachers in order to implement
the European dimension in their lessons including the lack of up-to-date, high-quality informational and
educational material on the European Union available in all EU languages, and whereas the European
Union should assist them in this endeavour,

1.
Considers that all education systems should ensure that their pupils have by the end of their secondary
education the knowledge and competences they need, as defined by their respective educational authorities,
to prepare them for their roles as citizens and as members of the European Union;

Stresses the importance of finding a clearer and uniform definition across the Member States of the

2.
meaning, substance and scope of the ‘European dimension’;

Urges the European Council and the Ministers of Education to update the above-mentioned resolution,

3.
in particular taking in to account the enlargements to the EU which have occurred since then;

Urges the Council to recognise the two different aspects of the European dimension — firstly access to
4.
information about the EU: its institutions, methods, practices, initiatives, and secondly knowledge of Eur-
ope's shared history and cultural heritage, the development of linguistic skills, and a grasp of European
current events, all of which may supplement national curricula;

5.
Stresses the importance of using multi-media and Internet educational resources as modern teaching
methods for introducing the European dimension into school curricula; with this in view, recommends for
instance the setting up of a multilingual Internet service that will present best practice, provide educational
assistance and serve as a platform for the exchange of experience;

Insists on the need for continued improvement in the provision of language teaching, for example
6.
within the Comenius section of the Lifelong Learning Programme; recognises furthermore that it is difficult,
in some Member States, in particular for those whose mother tongue is English, to maintain sufficient
interest and motivation in becoming proficient in other European languages, thus underpinning the level
of mutual understanding and empathy across Europe; in this connection learning the languages of neigh-
bouring peoples is especially important;

Urges Member States to promote the dissemination of multilingualism by a policy of

7.
learning a
broader range of languages than those taught today and to establish the teaching of at least two foreign
languages from a very early age in their school curricula;

8.
Suggests an analysis of where the Lisbon Agenda has so far failed to produce the intended results in
this matter and the production of a list of measures considered essential for Member State governments to
implement if the agreed economic improvements are to be brought about;

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15.12.2006

Tuesday 26 September 2006

9.
Recommends an exchange of best practice between all Member States with regard to language teach-
ing and the inclusion of European content in education, to ensure that the current initiatives, including
those established pre-2004, are disseminated to all EU Member States;

Proposes that as an important aspect of ensuring the success of the last EU enlargement, adequate
10.
information, project, student and teacher exchanges should be arranged between the ten new and the fifteen
more long-term Member States;

Calls on the Council to consider whether useful and relevant teaching resources such as ‘European
11.
Schoolnet’, learning cooperation and innovation and tools such as ‘Europe at School’ require support with
additional resources and whether teachers have sufficient guidance as to how to access the relevant informa-
tion in order to enhance the European dimension in education;

Suggests the promotion of teacher training courses which provide the trainees with the necessary
12.
understanding of European issues so that they may complement their teaching of national and local aware-
ness with the European dimension;

Stresses that the European dimension complements national content, but neither replaces nor sup-

13.
plants it;

Stresses the need to update existing documents, in particular the 1996 non-exhaustive Eurydice the-

14.
matic bibliography;

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the govern-

15.
ments and parliaments of the Member States.

P6_TA(2006)0362

Cleaner air for Europe ***I

European Parliament legislative resolution on the proposal for a directive of the European Parlia-
ment and of the Council on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe (COM(2005)0447 —
C6-0356/2005 — 2005/0183(COD))

(Codecision procedure: first reading)

The European Parliament,

— having regard to the Commission proposal to the European Parliament and the Council (COM(2005)

0447) (1),

— having regard to Article 251(2) and Article 175 of the EC Treaty, pursuant to which the Commission

submitted the proposal to Parliament (C6-0356/2005),

— having regard to Rule 51 of its Rules of Procedure,

— having regard to the report of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

(A6-0234/2006),

1.

Approves the Commission proposal as amended;

Calls on the Commission to refer the matter to Parliament again if it intends to amend the proposal

2.
substantially or replace it with another text;

3.

Instructs its President to forward its position to the Council and Commission.

(1) Not yet published in OJ.