Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Members of the committee will have been circulated with an information note prepared by the Department on the agenda for the next education Council on 26 November. This is the only council meeting being held under Cypriot Presidency. The next education Council meeting after this one will on 15 February and it will be the first of two to be held during Ireland''s Presidency in the first half of next year. Given the imminence of Ireland's Presidency I will focus these introductory remarks, first, on the agenda items for the November Council and I will then update the committee on our Presidency priorities in the area of education and training.

With regard to the upcoming November Council, there are five substantive items on the agenda. They include the following: a presentation on the state of play on the negotiations of the next generation of European programme for education, training, youth and sport, referred to "Erasmus for All"; the adoption of the Council conclusions on literacy; the adoption of the Council conclusions on education and training in Europe 2020 - the contribution of education and training to economic recovery and growth; the adoption of a Council recommendation on the validation of formal and informal learning; and a policy debate on improving teacher quality and status at a time of scarce resources. In addition, in terms of our incoming Presidency, I will make a presentation to the Council on our priorities in the area of education and training. I will now make some brief remarks on each of these agenda items in turn.

First, let me return to Erasmus for All. As members will perhaps recall, this is the integrated successor programme to the EU's Lifelong Learning, Youth in Action and Erasmus Mundus programmes. The Cypriot Presidency will update Council on the current status of negotiations on the new programme which is due to come into effect from 1 January 2014 and it will run until 2020. The new programme is aimed at developing a more integrated approach between education and youth-related programmes and the various existing EU higher education programmes. The Commission is proposing a major increase in funding to approximately €19.1 billion for this programme over the seven years of its operation. That represents a 70% increase over the existing programme. It is proposed that the majority of the funding, approximately 65%, will fund learning mobility at various levels of the education system, for example, Erasmus higher education exchanges. The other major component of funding, approximately 26%, will be allocated to facilitate co-operation for innovation and good practices within the European Union. The remainder will fund operating grants for agencies and administration.

The final budget will be subject to budget discussions which are currently under way centrally in the Council of Finance Ministers under the multi-annual financial framework negotiations. This is the seven-year European Union budget that falls to be negotiated under the Cypriot Presidency but could very well drift over into the Irish Presidency in the first six months of 2013. The regulation will be subject to agreement by both Council and European Parliament. With that in mind I held discussions last week with the chair of the Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education, Mrs. Doris Pack, from the EPP group on the regulation. I also hosted a lunch for Irish MEPs to brief them on our Presidency priorities and the negotiation process for Erasmus for All, and to seek their help, support and co-operation with Parliament on the negotiations I will have with them.

The second item of business at Council will be the adoption of Council conclusions on literacy. This document invites member states to tackle low literacy levels, including by increasing awareness of the problem, promoting family literacy, and ensuring equitable access to high quality early childhood education.