Education, Training, Youth

 

Opportunities in education and training

The EU has allocated some €7 billion to lifelong learning for the period 2007-2013. The main programme strands are:

• Leonardo da Vinci: vocational training, particularly placements for young workers and trainers in enterprises outside their own country, and cooperation projects linking vocational training institutes and businesses.
• Erasmus: student mobility and university cooperation. There have been 1.5 million Erasmus students since the programme was set up in 1987. A more recent Erasmus Mundus programme allows post-graduate students and academics from all over the world to obtain a Masters at courses involving consortia of at least three European universities.
• Grundtvig funds adult education programmes, particularly trans-national partnerships, networks and mobility.
• Comenius funds cooperation between schools and their teachers.

There is also money to promote policy cooperation, language learning, e-learning and dissemination, and exchange of best practices.

EU-wide recognition of vocational qualifications is a priority.

Customs

The customs union is a single trading area where all goods circulate freely, whether made within the EU or imported from outside. A Finnish mobile phone can be dispatched to Hungary without paying any duty and without any customs control. Duty on a TV from South Korea is paid when it first enters the EU, but after that there is nothing more to pay and there are no more checks.

Illegal imports come in many forms.

Customs activity remains very important nevertheless. Customs services in the EU handle nearly 20% of world imports. That is more than two billion tonnes of goods per year. Customs process well over 100 million customs declarations annually.

Development and Cooperation

Eradicating poverty for the new millennium

Here in Ghana, as elsewhere, healthcare for the young is a top priority.

The primary and overarching objective of EU development policy is to eradicate poverty in a sustainable way. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are key to the policy. The eight MDGs were adopted by world leaders in 2000 with a 2015 deadline and range from halving extreme poverty and halting the spread of HIV/AIDS, to providing universal primary education. The EU has asked national authorities to set financial targets for development funding so as to demonstrate their commitment to the MDGs. A 2005 progress report found that all countries had made financial contributions, but that more were needed. The world is on track to halve poverty by 2015. 120 million people were lifted out of poverty between 2000 and 2005. But in other areas, targets will not be met by 2015. These include lowering child and maternal mortality levels and providing clean drinking water.

Culture

These aims were spelt out in the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, which recognised formally for the first time the cultural dimension of European integration. But cultural initiatives had begun earlier. For instance, the successful programme to select each year Europe’s Capital of Culture was launched in 1985.

A young performer at the international music festival in Varna, Bulgaria.

An important sector

Cultural industries in the EU – cinema and audiovisual, publishing, music and crafts – are also important sources of revenue and of jobs, employing more than seven million people.  The EU runs support programmes for certain cultural industries, encouraging them to grasp opportunities offered by the single market and digital technologies.  It also strives to create a dynamic environment for these industries by cutting red tape, providing easier access to funding, helping with research projects and encouraging more cooperation with partners inside and outside the Union.

Economic and Monetary Affairs

The framework for cooperation on economic policy is the economic and monetary union (EMU), of which all EU countries are part. It is the context within which they agree common guidelines for questions of importance for the economy. The overall result is more growth, more jobs and a higher level of social welfare for all. In addition, this cooperation enables the EU to react to global economic and financial challenges in a coordinated way. It makes the EU as a trading block more resilient to shocks from the outside and enables the bloc to deal with economic and financial problems more effectively.

Sending money to children studying abroad is cheaper thanks to the EU.

Competition

Competition must be fair

International removal firms are among those fined for price-fixing.

It is illegal under EU rules for businesses to fix prices or carve up markets between them. Companies with a dominant position in a particular market may not abuse that power to squeeze out competitors. Big companies may not merge if that would put them in a position to control the market, though in practice this rule only prevents a small numbers of mergers going ahead. Larger companies planning to merge need approval from the European Commission – irrespective of where they are headquartered: the criterion is the amount of business they do within the EU.

Energy

 

Towards a low-carbon economy

Solar roof panels are an increasingly familiar sight.

In December 2008 EU leaders adopted a comprehensive package of measures to reduce the EU’s contribution to global warming and ensure reliable and sufficient supplies of energy. The most far-reaching reform ever of European energy policy, the package aims to make Europe the world leader in renewable energy and low-carbon technologies.

Driving the policy is the EU’s bid to achieve a 20% reduction in its greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 (compared with 1990 levels), mainly by boosting the use of renewable energy and curbing energy consumption. The measures will also reduce dependence on imports of gas and oil and help shelter the economy from volatile energy prices and uncertain supplies.