I thank the Chairman and members of the committee. This is the second Education, Youth, Culture and Sport Council meeting to be held under the Danish presidency. My remarks have been circulated to the committee. There are two substantive items on the agenda. The first is a discussion on the negotiations towards the next generation of the European education programme, known as Erasmus for All, and the second is the adoption of conclusions on the employability of graduates from education and training. We also understand that under any other business, Luxembourg has indicated it will raise a particular issue about its student grant and loan systems for higher education. Cyprus will also brief the Council on the programme for its upcoming Presidency in the second half of this year.
In regard to the first item on the agenda, most of the Council session will be taken up with discussion on the text of the proposed regulation for a proposed new integrated European programme in education, youth and sport called Erasmus for All. The reason for this title is that Erasmus is perhaps the most commonly known European brand in this space and it embraces and includes other programmes. It will replace the existing programmes in education and youth, the lifelong learning programme and youth in action and will come into effect from 1 January 2014.
As with the existing programme, Erasmus for All will support a number of different activities. 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 – approximately 26% of funding – will go on facilitating co-operation for innovation and good practices within the EU. The remainder will fund operating grants for agencies, policy reform work and administration.
The Commission is proposing a major increase in funding to approximately €19.1 billion for this programme over the seven years of its operation. This represents an extraordinary 70% increase over the existing programme. The final budget will be subject to budget discussions which are under way centrally in the Council of Finance Ministers under the multi-annual financial framework negotiations. The Danish Presidency's current ambition is to agree a general approach to funding of sectoral areas, including education, by the end of June 2012.
At the upcoming Education Council, the Presidency hopes to agree a partial general approach on the regulation for Erasmus for All. Essentially, this means that it wishes to secure agreement on most of the text, with the exception of the financial elements currently under discussion as part of the multi-annual financial framework. It would also like agreement on how best to proceed with respect to the outstanding issues. The regulation for the new programme will be subject to negotiation and agreement by both Council and European Parliament, through what is called the ordinary legislative procedure, formerly known as co-decision. It is expected that negotiations with the European Parliament to finalise the text will take place during our Presidency.
Our major issues have been reflected in the current draft of the regulation and we have no issues of contention with the current text. With a view to the fact that Ireland will be involved in sensitive discussions which will take place during our Presidency, I propose to adopt a supportive but impartial approach at this Council meeting.
The second item of business at Council will be adoption of conclusions on the employability of graduates from education and training. Council Ministers had a very good engagement at the last Council on tackling youth unemployment. These conclusions have subsequently been negotiated at official level and will be adopted at Council without discussion. The main aims of this conclusions document are to adopt a benchmark to monitor the numbers of young people employed within three years of their graduation, whether from second level or tertiary education and to encourage member states to focus on measures which can contribute to improving outcomes for these young people, including, for example, enhanced co-operation between education and training institutions and employers.
The conclusions set out a Europe-wide target. By 2020, the employment rate for 20-34 year olds with upper secondary or tertiary attainment who have left education in the previous three years and who are not in further education or training should be a minimum of 82%. Europe-wide, the current rate is 76.5%. As measured by CSO quarterly statistics, Ireland's current rate is around 82%. Of course, the Government regards this rate as far too high and is committed to tackling it, including through the range of activation measures currently under way in the context of the Government's action plan for jobs and Pathways to Work initiatives. We have also made the point in our discussions with European partners that we need to be careful that this overall benchmark does not mask important differences between groups of people based on their level of educational attainment in the individual members states.
