Dr. Tibor Navracsics:

I agree with the committee on the role of people and our responsibility in education policy to those who have special needs or disabilities. I took part in several workshops and conferences in the European Parliament talking about opportunities for people with disabilities in ERASMUS. It is a difficult issue because they need something special and ERASMUS Plus is a big one-fit-for-all project. However, we have almost 600 participants with special needs and disabilities from Ireland in ERASMUS. It is not a big number but it is a good start.

We have to make the whole system more sensitive to individual needs. One of the avenues of thinking about the future of ERASMUS is making it more sensitive in that direction by combining it with travel opportunities, creating more opportunities for accessibility and to open the traditional modes of mobility to people with disability. However, that is in the future unfortunately. The Irish cultural shift has been mentioned, but there are many member states where this shift has not been made. In Hungary, there are serious government efforts to introduce integrated schools and make them universal. However, the general pattern is still specialised schools in towns, smaller settlements and villages because of tradition and bad responses. It is difficult to understand. The Spanish model is one of the most successful, with really integrated schools. I do not know the committee's opinion on that.