Tuesday 13 November 2012, 15.30-17.00

European Parliament Brussels, A5E1



hosted by MEP NIKOS CHRYSOGELOS, GREENS/EFA

 

Speakers:



PETER MATJASIC, President of the European Youth Forum



KATHRIN RENNER, Vice President of AEGEE-Europe/European Students Forum



SIMONA PRONCKUTE, European Citizens Initiative Fraternite 2020



EMMANUEL ALFRANSEDE, President of the Erasmus Student Network



KARINA UFERT, European Students Union



Charing by: LUIS ALVARADO MARTINEZ, President of AEGEE-Europe



AEGEE (European Students' Forum) <http://aegee.org/> , ESN (Erasmus
Student Network) <http://esn.org/>  and ESU (European Student Union)
<http://www.esu-online.org/> , Europe's biggest student organisations,
representing more than 11 million students and 30.000 volunteers from
47 countries, call upon the European Union decision-makers for
adequate support to education and youth programmes in the budget
negotiations under the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2010.



As representative student organisations, we fully support the European
Commission proposal to increase funding for education, training, youth
and sport programmes to 19 billion EUR over 7 years. We believe that
it is the minimum amount required to achieve the objective of
sustainable growth and jobs, as agreed in the EU2020 Strategy.



Mobility, through voluntary activities for young people (under support
of Youth in Action) and students (under support of Erasmus and other
programmes) benefits individuals and society at large. Young
Europeans, who have an opportunity to be mobile, are:

·         More advanced in their personal and professional
development: Education as a whole and mobility in particular enable
personal growth and help individuals to develop their intercultural
communication, language skills and team work ability;

·         More supportive for European Integration: European
integration can only be achieved through personal ties, which have to
be experienced first-hand. Living, studying, working and volunteering
abroad are the best way to achieve this.

·         More skilled: Especially in the context of the current
economic crisis and its consequences, including high youth
unemployment and a lack of perspective for young people, we are
convinced that education as a long term investment, including
mobility, is a key factor in tackling the financial crisis. Learning
mobility, despite being highly beneficial for individuals, has also a
very positive impact on higher education providers, including teaching
and administrative staff.



We stress the importance of maintaining a sufficient level of funding
in the form of operational grants or administrative support for
organisations active in both the youth and education sector in order
to ensure the quality and resources for these organisations.



AEGEE, ESN and ESU strongly believe that the success of the current
Lifelong Learning programme in the area of youth and learning mobility
clearly show the benefits of allocating resources on the European
level. While stressing the continued need of investment in higher
education and youth also on a national, regional and local level, we
strongly endorse the proposed budget increase for the European
programme in education, training, youth and sport.