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Improvements in education, research and innovation are needed to help Europe compete globally, to equip the young for today's job market and to address the consequence of the economic crisis, EU Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth Androulla Vassiliou said in Nicosia on Friday.
Speaking during a press conference at the Cyprus EU House, Vassiliou talked about her priorities in her new role as European Commissioner and said that education should be a key part of the Commission's 'Europe 2020' strategy and promoting an increase in university studies
“We will actively help one out of six young people who leave school early, one out of five 15-year-olds with poor reading skills and 80 mln people surviving with only low or basic skills,” she said.
The Commissioner, formerly in charge of Health in the previous Commission, said she will encourage policies to reduce early school leaving and make proposals to strengthen benchmarking to improve policies on employability, learning mobility and language learning.
Referring to higher education as vital for raising skill levels, she said that despite real progress through the Bologna higher education reforms, not many of our universities match the world's best.
Vassiliou said she intends to work towards energising and modernising higher education, making Europe a destination of choice for students and researchers through the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, the Marie Curie actions and the Erasmus programme.
The Commissioner said she will work closely with national authorities, mapping out common approaches to shared challenges, based on best practice and benchmarking.
As EU programmes show, she added, learning mobility is very effective in enhancing skills (including languages) and employability and opening people's minds to other cultures.
“My aim is to establish a framework for the 'Youth on the Move' initiative in summer 2010 and propose a programme for it as soon as possible,” she added.
Vassiliou said improvements are needed to nurture cultural expression, creativity and innovation for all, encourage cultural and creative industries to spur more innovation and growth and to promote a world-beating media industry, which creates jobs and growth.
She said a Green Paper in 2010 will help target European and national action in this area.
The Commissioner said languages help us both professionally and socially, open people's minds to the diversity which is an integral part of the EU's cultural richness.
“We must support not just the EU’s 23 official languages but Europe’s 60 regional and minority languages,” she added.
“One of my key tasks will be to promote language learning from a young age and our goal is for every EU citizen to speak at least two foreign languages as well as their own.”
Young people, she said, are one of the most vulnerable groups in society, especially in the current economic and financial crisis.
She said that with the new youth strategy ‘Youth – Investing and Empowering’, she will work to create more opportunities for youth in education and employment, to improve access and full participation of all young people in society, and to foster solidarity between youth and society.
As regards sports, Vassiliou said although the EU direct competence is limited, many EU policies touch – and are touched by – sport.
“I consider sport as an important part of my portfolio. I want to explore how to take full advantage of the new EU powers in sport under the Lisbon Treaty. Sport's importance for education, training, social integration and health is immense. It also has an important economic impact,” she added.
The Commissioner said she will work closely with professional and amateur organisations to promote fair play, to fight doping, to protect young athletes – amateur and professional, to combat racism and violence and promote grassroots sport and lifelong amateur sport for all, so Europeans have a healthy lifestyle from pre-school to old age.
