Conclusions of the Council and of the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States, meeting within the Council of 21 November 2008 on youth mobility
Date: 2008-12-16
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: access to information, education, free movement of persons, geographical mobility, student mobility, vocational training, young person, youth policy

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Official Journal of the European Union

16.12.2008

Conclusions of the Council and of the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States,
meeting within the Council of 21 November 2008 on youth mobility

(2008/C 320/03)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

WHEREAS:

1. At its meetings in Lisbon in March 2000 and Barcelona in
March 2002 the European Council agreed to set a strategic
goal for the European Union to become the most competi-
tive and dynamic knowledge-based economy and society in
the world by 2010, to make the education and training
systems of the European Union a world quality reference by
2010 and to create a European Research and Innovation
Area.

2. The European Council, meeting in Brussels in March 2008,
agreed on the objective of removing barriers to the free
movement of knowledge by creating a ‘fifth freedom’ which,
inter alia, would involve increased cross-border mobility of
researchers, as well as students, scientists and university
teaching staff.

3. The decisions of the European Parliament and of the Council
establishing Action Programmes for the period 2007-2013
in the field of education and training for life and throughout
youth all aim to promote mobility; furthermore, European
programmes and measures in the field of research and enter-
prise policy, as well as the Structural Funds, also share that
same goal.

4. The Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the
Council on the European Quality Charter for Mobility (2006)
suggested key principles to ensure the best possible condi-
tions for preparing, assisting and assessing the period of
mobility of a young person in another Member State.

5. The purpose of the Bologna process in the case of higher
education and the Copenhagen process in the case of voca-
tional education and training is to establish a European area
offering greater student and teacher mobility, greater trans-
parency in the recognition of qualifications and of periods of
study and training, and improved cooperation between
institutions.

7. The conclusions of the Council on intercultural competences
in May 2008 emphasise the contribution of mobility to the
acquisition of such competences.

8. The Council Recommendation on the Mobility of Young
Volunteers Across the European Union of 20 November
2008 addresses the issues relating specifically to the mobility
of young volunteers,

WELCOMES the report by the High Level Expert Forum on Mobi-
lity published by the European Commission in June 2008 (2) in
response to the Council's call for mobility to be promoted and
extended beyond students to benefit other young target groups,
and the European Economic and Social Committee's report of
29 May 2008 entitled ‘Better promoting the mobility of young
people in Europe: practicalities and timetable’.

AWARE THAT:

Youth mobility in Europe, based on the principle of free move-
ment benefiting every European citizen, a central component of
European cooperation on education and training, whether
formal, informal or non-formal, and a crucial challenge for a
knowledge-based Europe, is an important instrument in:

— fostering a sense of belonging to Europe,

— promoting social and occupational integration,

— ensuring the competitiveness of
within a globalised environment.

the European economy

NOTES THAT:

Whilst
the Erasmus programme has been successful, youth
mobility nevertheless all too often remains the exception; that is
true even for students, of whom only a small proportion travels
to another Member State to study or undergo a period of
still unevenly distributed,
training in an enterprise.
depending on types of
training and sectors, study subjects,
countries and social background, as a result in particular of lack
of information, funding problems and insufficient recognition
of periods of study abroad in courses. Mobility continues to be
insufficiently known, owing to the lack of good quality informa-
tion and of reliable and comparable statistics outside the frame-
work of Community programmes.

is

It

6. The various European instruments, both existing (EQF, ECTS
and Europass) and forthcoming (ECVET), are intended to
enable European citizens to achieve better recognition of
their qualifications and skills and to enhance them, as well as
to provide them with information on learning opportunities
throughout Europe (the PLOTEUS and ‘Study in Europe’
portals) (1).

UNDERLINES THE FOLLOWING PRINCIPLES:

1. mobility concerns all young Europeans, whether they be
schoolchildren, students, apprentices, volunteers,
teachers,
young researchers, trainers, youth workers, entrepreneurs or
young people on the labour market;

(1) http://www.ec.europa.eu/ploteus, http://www.study-in-europe.org

(2) http://ec.europa.eu/education/doc/2008/mobilityreport_en.pdf

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2. mobility is to be understood primarily as physical mobility,
which means staying in another country for study, a work
placement, community work or additional training in the
‘virtual mobility’,
context of lifelong learning. Nevertheless,
i.e. the use of ICTs to develop partnerships or long-distance
exchanges with young people in other countries as part of a
structured educational or training project, can also make a
significant contribution to mobility, particularly in the
context of schools;

3. mobility should be seen not as an end in itself but as a
preferred means of strengthening European citizenship and
competitiveness, expanding and enriching the training and
experience of young people, enhancing their versatility and
employability and developing their
intercultural under-
standing through language skills and exposure to other
cultures;

4. for an ambitious, cross-cutting policy for mobility in Europe
it must spark interest in mobility among all
to succeed,
young people, have the objective of gradually making a
period of mobility in another European country the rule for
all and be allocated appropriate financial resources to meet
that challenge. Particular attention should be given to
students who, given their socio-economic background or
special needs, require additional financial support. Such a
policy should also focus on arrangements for preparing and
supporting mobility, as well as recognising the learning
outcomes of a period of mobility, and should promote the
development of mobility for teachers and trainers, who play
a key part in these arrangements;

5. this mobility policy is aimed above all at intra-European
it may also contribute towards developing

mobility but
mobility between Europe and third countries.

INVITES MEMBER STATES TO:

1. adopt the objective of gradually making periods of learning
abroad the rule rather than the exception for all young
Europeans by increasing cross-border mobility opportunities
in the various education and training areas and, while having
due regard to their national frameworks and legislation, in
the field of voluntary activities;

2. with that in mind, meet the objectives set by the European
Union programmes in the fields of education, youth, culture,
citizenship and research for the period 2007-2013;

placement, or in the context of voluntary activities. In
particular:

— every schoolchild in general education or vocational
education and training should have the opportunity
to participate in a mobility scheme in the course of
their school studies,

— every student in higher education should have the
opportunity to follow a period of study or training
or a work placement abroad. Higher Education Insti-
tutions should be encouraged to make such periods
of mobility a part of their degree courses, either in
the first or second cycle,

— opportunities for mobility in the context of voca-
education and training should increase

tional
significantly;

3.2. the mobility of teachers, trainers and other educational
existing

especially within the

framework of

staff,
programmes, should be increased;

4. put these objectives into practice at various levels in order to
increase the opportunities for mobility available to young
people and implement partnerships for mobility involving all
stakeholders — public authorities, enterprises and education
and training establishments — and civil society.

INVITES THE MEMBER STATES AND THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
WITHIN THEIR RESPECTIVE SPHERES OF COMPETENCE, to adopt
measures which take account of national situations and national
legislation, with a view to removing barriers to mobility in
different areas and ensuring that periods of study and training
abroad are recognised. Within the framework of the various
exercises of the open method of coordination for education,
training, culture and youth, they should seek in particular to:

1. Develop scope for mobility for all young persons

1.1.

improve the management of public sector support for
mobility by encouraging coordinated action on the part
of stakeholders, both political (European Union, State,
regional and local authorities) and administrative (in
particular the national agencies responsible for mana-
ging Community programmes);

3. on the basis of the proceedings of the High Level Expert
the following aims

Forum, strive as far as possible for
beyond 2013:

1.2. make full use of all current mobility opportunities
afforded by European Union programmes which
provide for virtual mobility and involve not only young
people, but also more generally education staff;

3.1. every young person should have the opportunity to
take part in some form of mobility, whether this be
during their studies or training, in the form of a work

1.3. take into account the needs, particularly with regard to
funding, of less-favoured students who would otherwise
be unable to take advantage of mobility programmes;

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1.4. promote the development of new mobility opportu-

nities, in particular by:

— extending partnerships involving recognised periods
of mobility in other establishments or frameworks,
in particular associations,

Member States with the European Qualifications Frame-
work and by European instruments such as Europass,
Youthpass, ECTS credits and the ECVET system.

4. Widen and diversify the sources of funding for youth

— increasing the number of double or joint diplomas,

mobility

— stepping up support

for
mobility of young people, including apprentices,

the vocational

training

— making more extensive use of cultural and language

visits,

— promoting groupings of students,
from European art schools,
carrying out joint projects,

including those
for the purposes of

— establishing additional training modules delivered by
higher education institutions, for example summer
courses,

— increasing mobility

and
between enterprises and the academic, training and
research communities,

enterprises

between

— creating opportunities for exchanges in the frame-

work of voluntary activities.

2. Provide better
programmes

information about existing mobility

2.1. raise awareness of the advantages of mobility among
young people, the staff in charge of them and their
teachers and
social circle (in particular their family,
education staff), and youth workers;
to that end,
promote access to information for these target groups
by all means possible;

2.2. further enhance the promotion and implementation of
European Union programmes in the fields of education,
youth, culture, citizenship and research.

3. Simplify procedures

3.1. continue to simplify provisions for the implementation
of European Union programmes, taking care in particu-
lar to make general use of multiannual agreements,
especially in the field of education and vocational
training. Such agreements are a precondition for estab-
lishing lasting partnerships between training establish-
ments and enterprises;

3.2.

3.3.

implement or encourage the development of a financial
incentive strategy for bodies and stakeholders, in par-
ticular teachers, trainers and youth workers who orga-
nise mobility across Europe for the young people in
their charge;

recognition

of mobility-related

improve
learning
outcomes by generalising as far as possible validation of
learning outcomes for all periods of mobility in Europe
— an objective facilitated by the forthcoming correla-
the
tion, by 2010, of

the qualifications systems of

4.1. support youth mobility through appropriate Com-
munity financing, within the ceilings of the Financial
Framework, in particular from the Structural Funds —
mainly by better use of the possibilities afforded by the
European Social Fund — and in the long term by
adapting their guidelines and their management in line
with the Member States' priorities to take the mobility
objective into account;

4.2. encourage broader diversification and better comple-
mentarity of the financing methods of youth mobility
projects, by resorting to public and private-sector
sources of financing within the limits of their respective
capabilities (State, regional and local authorities, enter-
prises, banking institutions
including the European
Investment Bank, foundations, European trade associa-
tions, etc.);

4.3 take into consideration the particular financial needs of
students from less favourable socio-economic back-
grounds or with special needs so as to enable their
participation in mobility programmes.

5. Apply the principles enshrined in the European Quality
Charter for Mobility in education and training to all
regards
forms of youth mobility,
arrangements for preparing, supporting and assessing
periods of mobility

in particular as

5.1. encourage exchanges of best practice with respect to
increasing the capacity and improving the quality of
reception for young Europeans on mobility schemes;

5.2. call upon the responsible stakeholders to improve the
living and working conditions of
accommodation,
young Europeans on mobility schemes, in particular on
higher education campuses;

5.3.

improve linguistic and cultural preparation for youth
mobility.

6. Increase knowledge of youth mobility

6.1. take stock of mobility flows in Europe by consolidating
and, where applicable, compiling reliable and compar-
able statistics;

6.2. disseminate and pool available survey results more

efficiently;

6.3. conduct impact studies as appropriate in order to assess
the practical benefits of mobility for young Europeans
from a cultural, educational and professional point of
view.

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INVITES THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION TO:

1. establish a work plan to include cross-border mobility
in particular by
measures in all European programmes,
setting up mechanisms for the promotion of programmes
among young people and facilitating the development,
together with the competent authorities, of ‘one-stop-shops’,
as well as a European youth mobility portal, to improve the
dissemination of information among young people and the
relevant institutions, exploit each programme's possibilities
for virtual mobility schemes, and generate multiplier effects
among the various programmes;

2. publish,

in before the end of 2010, a report on the
medium-term development of youth mobility across Europe
and draw up regular reports included in the joint interim

report every 4 years on the state of youth and teacher mobi-
lity in the European Union;

3. produce a guide for Member States, regional and local autho-
rities and education and training establishments and the
actors associated with youth policies intended to help them
benefit from other European policies which support mobility,
such as the Structural Funds and the research programmes
and policies;

4. explore the feasibility of developing new means of finan-
to help young people undergo periods of
cial support
cross-border learning mobility,
including the possibility of
‘European student loans’, and to report back to the Council
on the progress made.