Slovenia in the European Union
To Slovenian citizens, membership in the European Union represents one of the vital foundations of their own statehood, since it was already envisaged in the basic starting points of forming our own country just under two decades ago.
Slovenian citizens convincingly affirmed their commitment to European integration at the referendum held a year before the enlargement of the Union with ten new members in May 2004, and the commitment has been clearly reaffirmed after accession, as shown by Eurobarometer surveys. Public opinion also shows support for the idea that schools should teach about the European Union and, except for Finland, the trust that people place in the educational system is the highest in Slovenia among all Member States. We wish to justify our citizens’ trust and are firmly convinced that the easiest way to do so is in collaboration with other Member States, by taking part in Community programmes and by effectively using instruments to help us implement our own development objectives and agreed common policies. We wish to further demonstrate our commitment to common objectives with our six-month Presidency of the European Council and its working bodies, and by responsible execution of the other tasks held by the presiding state.
Assumption of responsibility to lead a complex organization that has been shaped over half a century presents one of the newest, youngest and smallest members of the Union with a great challenge, but through its own undisputed achievements and previous successful completion of important tasks, Slovenia has already demonstrated that it deserves the trust of the international community. The Ministry of Education and Sport has paid a great deal of attention to planning tasks over the last two years and has undergone thorough training for their execution. We will apply the same eagerness in making a joint effort to carry out the planned work as close to perfection as possible, and in this we rely on your support and cooperation as well. We will make sure that you feel so good during your visits to Slovenia during its Presidency of the European Council that you will enjoy coming back to our small but incredibly diverse country just as much as those of us who call it home.
Dr Milan Zver
Minister of Education and Sport
Slovenian Presidency program for the field of Education, Youth and Sport
PRESIDENCY OF THE COUNCIL – CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
1. EDUCATION AND TRAINING
2. YOUTH
3. SPORT
1. EDUCATION AND TRAINING
In the area of education and training, we have designed a programme that for the most part derives from the inherited agenda and is based on common programmes of the planned activities of the Commission and the Council; among our priorities, however, we would like to give preference to the discussion of documents and decisions of strategic importance. We hope to use them to open new doors to the development of education and training in the final period of implementation of the Education and Training 2010 programme, to announce the creation of a new vision for the period after 2010, and to make a creative contribution to the preparation of a new cycle of the Lisbon Strategy.
We would like to emphasize the following tasks of the Presidency as our priorities:
- Strengthening the role of education and training in society and in the revised Lisbon Strategy;
- Encouraging creativity and innovation in connection with school modernization;
- Encouraging intercultural dialogue and multilingualism.
The first priority will guide us in adopting the Joint progress report of the Council and the Commission on the implementation of the Education and Training 2010 Work Programme and on achieving the benchmarks and progress on the agreed set of indicators based on the Work Programme. In the draft key messages to the Spring European Council in March, we will strive for greater visibility of education and training in the knowledge triangle and of lifelong learning as a key driver of the Lisbon Strategy. In doing so, we will particularly emphasize the responsibility of education and training systems for detecting and developing the creative and innovative potential of all citizens, and especially of the generations on which the competitiveness of Europe in the global economy and the welfare of its citizens will depend in future decades.
We will make the central issue in our Presidency programme the question of what are the capacities and skills that enable creativity and innovation and what would have to be done in order for schools to become able to develop them appropriately. In order for schools to be able to implement these objectives, they will undoubtedly have to become more creative themselves in the pursuit of their missions. We will seek answers to the question of how to encourage the development of creativity and innovation and how school systems should adapt to this task at the central conference that the Presidency is organising in collaboration with the European Commission, which will be held in Slovenia in the beginning of April 2008. This will also be one of the subjects of discussion for ministers at the May Council, where decisions on further work will be made. Its significance will be emphasized by the Commission’s proposal for a decision of the Parliament and the Council designating the year 2009 as the European year of creativity and innovation through education and culture, which is to be drafted and adopted during Slovenia’s Presidency.
For Slovenia as one of the smallest members of the European Union, it is especially important to maintain and encourage the cultural diversity of Europe along with the wealth of languages in which its citizens communicate. Ministers will discuss the importance of language diversity and language learning at an informal conference on 15 February, which we are preparing in collaboration with the Commission. The conference will be co-chaired by the Minister of Education and Sport, Dr Milan Zver, and the Commissioner for Multilingualism, Leonard Orban. Based on previous materials, recommendations by a group of intellectuals appointed by Commissioner Orban and our discussion, the Commission will prepare its communication on multilingualism to be published in September 2008 under the French Presidency. The ministers will have a chance to debate the issues of multilingualism and encouragement of intercultural dialogue at an informal conference in June 2008 in Oslo. The Slovenian Presidency is organizing it in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Research of the Kingdom of Norway.
By including representatives of Western Balkan countries into both conferences and other informal events in Slovenia, we would like also to contribute to fulfilling one of the general priorities of the Presidency of the Republic of Slovenia in the area of enlargement and intercultural dialogue, as defined by the eighteen-month programme of the German-Portuguese-Slovenian Trio Presidency.
We will also pay appropriate attention to the implementation of the Copenhagen Declaration. In collaboration with the European Parliament, we will begin the procedure of adopting recommendations on the European Credit System for VET (ECVET) and on quality assurance in vocational education and training. We will endeavour to be able to submit a general approach at the May Council, which would make a good basis for further negotiations with the European Parliament and a political agreement in the first reading under the French Presidency.
Monitoring and encouraging further work in the scope of the Copenhagen process constitutes an important task for directors general for vocational education and training. They will meet in Slovenia in the beginning of March and will focus on the issue of how education and training systems can stimulate innovation and creativity in the workforce, and how the supposedly conflicting trends of efficiency and equity can be overcome in vocational education and training. They will also touch upon other issues in connection with the role of vocational education and training in the global economy.
The priorities in the area of enlargement and collaboration with neighbouring countries are also being pursued by providing legal foundations for the future successful operation of the European Training Foundation in Turin. The general approach on the ETF recast Regulation will be submitted for approval to the Council at the May session at the latest, and we hope to be able to achieve sufficient consensus with the competent parliamentary committee already during our Presidency to allow the recast Regulation to be adopted before the end of the French Presidency of the Council.
Furthermore, we also wish to achieve progress in the implementation of objectives in adult education and thus allow the implementation of important priorities in eliminating the gap between future needs of the European economy and the competences at hand on the labour market today. We will submit to the Education Council draft conclusions on the implementation of the action plan for adult learning prepared by the Commission following its previous Communication on adult learning “It is never too late to learn”, taking into account the needs of individuals and society in the face of the problems of an ageing society.
2. YOUTH
Youth is a demographic segment with a great economic and social potential; therefore the European youth policy will play an important role during our Presidency. The inherited agenda will include ongoing issues directly linked to youth, such as the integration of young people into society, autonomy of youth, non-formal learning or lifelong learning, and active citizenship. Our priorities and objectives for the six-month Presidency period have been based on the common programme of the Trio Presidency of Germany, Portugal and Slovenia, focusing on social and professional integration of young people.
Our first priority in this area will be to strengthen the youth dimension in the Lisbon Strategy. During the revision of the integrated guidelines, the Slovenian Presidency intends to prepare an agreement on key messages to the spring European Council and to draw attention particularly to the improvement of measures for social and professional integration of young people and to the visibility of youth issues in national reform programmes.
The European Year of Intercultural Dialogue will greatly target youth. Intercultural dialogue, which is understood as a process that comprises an open and respectful exchange of views between individuals and groups with different ethnic, religious and linguistic backgrounds and heritage, helps in understanding the complexity of the world as we see it today. This makes it particularly important to encourage young people to study other cultures both at home and around the world, which can make a significant contribution to greater tolerance and understanding. Ministers will discuss this at the February Council, and we will listen to the opinion of young people on intercultural dialogue at the international youth event taking place in Slovenia in April.
Adoption of a Council resolution on participation of disadvantaged youth in society will be Slovenia’s contribution to the new framework for European youth policy. Encouraging the participation and active citizenship of all young people has been an important task of youth policy ever since the adoption of the White Paper. However, to provide equal opportunities to all young people, it is important to prepare additional measures which will enable development of the individual potential of disadvantaged young people and contribute to overcoming the prejudice and stereotypes in society that cause social exclusion of individuals.
The programme of the Slovenian Presidency also includes the final evaluation of the YOUTH Programme, which is an important instrument of the EU for encouraging mobility and cooperation of young people. Adoption of the final evaluation report and the discussion to follow can make an important contribution to the development or more effective implementation of the Youth in Action Programme.
Slovenia also wants to deepen the debate on the future of the European youth policy, which was initiated by the European Commission during the Austrian Presidency and continued during the Finnish Presidency. One of the objectives of the current Trio Presidency is to determine how to strengthen the existing framework for European collaboration in the area of youth policy, especially with regard to issues connected with the European Youth Pact and the extension of youth policy to all areas concerning young people.
During its Presidency, Slovenia will organise two events. The youth event is a meeting of 150 young people from all European Union and EFTA Member States, three EU candidate countries and the Western Balkan countries. This is an opportunity to cooperate with youth organizations and young people in finding ways to achieve their more active participation in debates and decision-making processes. Special emphasis will be given to the importance of additionally encouraging the participation of disadvantaged young people in society, as well as the importance of encouraging intercultural dialogue and intercultural learning, and promoting values such as mutual respect, diversity, equality, human dignity and solidarity.
Additionally, the Office of the Republic of Slovenia for Youth is also preparing a meeting of directors general responsible for the implementation of youth policy in Member States. The meeting is intended for a debate on the medium- and long-term future of youth policy and the exchange of good practices among states. The parallel timing of the events is not a coincidence, because we also want to encourage structured dialogue between youth and national authorities.
3. SPORT
Over the decades Slovenia has built its recognition and its position within the family of European countries and in the international community, among other things, through sport. In our country sport has a particularly important role and place in society and is closely linked with education, health, culture and science.
For the first time, sport was successfully included in the 18-month programme of the German, Portuguese and Slovenian Presidencies adopted on 30 October 2006 (in part III, section “Social Policy, Health and Consumers”, p. 35). This is due to the fact that Commission President José Manuel Durão Barroso on 11 July 2007 signed the White Paper on Sport, which provides reference for the Commission to act in the area of sport in the EU basically from three core aspects:
Societal role of sport (sport as a means of social development, sport as an educational tool, sport as a tool for integration and social cohesion, sport and health, sport and sustainable development, vocational qualification and training in sport, fight against violence and doping in sport, etc.);
Economic dimension of sport (a common European satellite account for sport based on the statistical evaluation of the economic impact of sport and its contribution to GDP in EU Member States, professional and amateur sport, public or general interest in sport, financing of sport through games of chance, etc.);
European sport model (openness of competition systems, democratic and transparent sport governance, leadership and management, pyramid structure with promotion and relegation, grassroots club and association structure, etc.).
There are great expectations in connection with the White Paper on Sport, not only in the EU but also in all Member States and in the civil sport movement across Europe. This is also the main reason for and the main objective of the Republic of Slovenia to take an active part in implementing the White Paper recommendations put forward in the Action Plan Pierre de Coubertin accompanying the White Paper.
Slovenia will therefore organise two major events during its Presidency: an informal meeting of sports directors (4–5 February at Brdo pri Kranju, near Ljubljana) and an informal meeting of sports ministers (16–17 March 2008, at Brdo pri Kranju, near Ljubljana, on the occasion of the 2008 World Cup Ski Jumping and Flying Finals in Planica). Our desire is to organise at the same time a meeting of the national Olympic committees of the 27 Member States as the umbrella non-governmental sport organisations, and hopefully to adopt a joint declaration on the traditional values, position and importance of sport in the European Union.
Having in mind the last few years’ priorities handed over from Presidency to Presidency and new relevant topics added during the last year, connected particularly with the issues of the White Paper on Sport, Slovenia is more than willing to carry on during its Presidency the work in the following important areas: sport and health, with a possible initiative to prepare European guidelines for lifelong physical activity; the economic impact of sport, where the priority objective is to prepare common European statistical standards possibly leading to a European satellite account for sport in order to have a uniform approach towards measuring the economic significance of sport in the EU; profit and non-profit sport organisations with voluntary leadership in sport linked with general public interest, which is becoming a core issue for the development of sport in the EU; the fight against doping in sport, where the basic idea is to establish an EU network on the fight against doping in sport with the reactivation of the European Commission; and vocational qualification and training in sport, where our intention is to bring it closer to the standards of the common European Qualifications Framework (EQF).
Besides the topics listed above, Slovenia is particularly interested in and intends to have a more in-depth look at the following items raised recently: establishing a working group for the implementation of the recommendations of the White Paper on Sport with the main task to prepare concrete priorities for action in sport, with a later platform to prepare a special sport programme of the European Commission, hopefully followed by the allocation of necessary funds in the EC budget; setting up a common Sports Information Network of the EU; and taking an active part in the field of integration through sport, linked closely with the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue.
Our sincere hope is to be able to carry out the envisaged programme specified above in favour of the development of sport and its supportive role in society, especially at the present moment, when sport has gained a very high profile on the political agenda within the EU.
We firmly believe that we can reach our goal with the help and cooperation of all European stakeholders in sport.
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