Mr. Michael Shotter:

On the future of Europe, in tabling our proposals in September we wanted this part of the future of Europe to become the present of Europe. It is not a matter for a futuristic debate. We would like these proposals, which are all urgently needed, to become Europe's present. In that sense, I would not move them to forward looking discussion. We need them to be put in place now. That is the priority. It is interconnected with a vision of the world and with the image the European Union projects. We need to put in place a stable system that is in line with our values and to show that Europe can come together on what has been a divisive issue. It is difficult, but we think it is essential to bring member states and the Parliament together now on this and not to push it out to the future.

The Chairman is correct about the importance of community. We are in Brussels at a European level. We need to reach out to the local and regional level. We know the importance of the local and regional level. In terms of integration, for example, it is important that we get it at local and regional level and we are working in that regard with the European cities. We have a lot of outreach. As I mentioned, last week we brought forward with our action plan, which is a core component of the overall comprehensive approach but one that can only be delivered at a local and regional level and the sense of community and local ownership referenced by the Chairman. It is very important, not only in that dimension, but on a range of policy issues. When we have consultations we are extremely interested in what that local level can contribute. We need to work to the extent that we can with the local level and to maximise our outreach in that regard.

The Chairman asked about Jordan, the Lebanon and Uganda. I understand the third countries, Jordan and Lebanon, have an awful lot of displaced persons and persons in need of international protection. This is where the importance of the legal pathways of resettlement comes in. We brought forward our resettlement recommendation, which was intended to send a signal that at European level we intend to take a stand and provide money to help member states, as we have in the past but we want to send the signal that it will be provided through the EU budget to support member states in their pledging on resettlement. This involves operations with the international organisations like the UNHCR and it is for the most vulnerable people. The humanitarian pathways that we provide are of key importance in terms of supporting countries like Jordan and the Lebanon. The Chairman is correct that this leads-in to my first point in regard to the importance of the partnerships. We need to build up the partnerships with these countries because a lot of them are under a great deal of pressure. The pathways for developing local skills, such as teacher exchanges as mentioned by the Chairman, can be very rich and rewarding but it is dependent on a third country being interested in this type of arrangement. It may be that it can participate and so we need to bring our EU funding possibilities into play through, for example, the ERASMUS programme, to provide policy support in this area. The point that this underlines is a point I made earlier, which is that we need to have an integrated approach or a whole-of-government approach to our policy making. There are many useful things happening in the development world through our outreach such as, for example, ERASMUS. We need to bring together these different policy tools. These are not in the area of my directorate-general, but across the Commission we need to bring together all of our policy tools to make these interesting partnerships, which can be mutually rewarding as indicated by the Chairman.

I hope I have covered all of the Chairman's questions. I thank the committee for the opportunity to have this exchange with it today.