EUA Calls on National Governments to Keep Their Commitment to a Europe of Knowledge
The European University Association (EUA) supports the decision of the European Parliament to reject the budget compromise negotiated by the heads of states and governments for 2007 to 2013 and strongly backs the call from the European Commission to raise R&D and university spending. EUA stresses the importance of education, research and innovation as key priorities and essential to building a future Europe of knowledge. Therefore, a revised version of the budget is needed which gives a clear priority to education, research and innovation, and thus facilitates the achievement of the Lisbon objectives and the establishment of a European Higher Education and Research Area. The current agreement that is far below the European Commission's proposals is not acceptable. The proposed future expenditure for Research, Education and Training policies falls far short of the level of funding needed to promote change and innovation. A total of 72 billion, instead of the 132 billion originally planned, is attributed to all activities funded under the Competitiveness for Growth and Employment heading which comprises the 7th Framework Research programme (FP7), the future Education and Training programme (Socrates/Leonardo), internal market activities and social policy, as well as nuclear decommissioning. While stating that the resources available for research in 2013 should be 75% higher than in 2006, the European Council made no firm commitment to ensure that there will be a sustainable growth in resources over the whole period. In any case the new figures are far below the initial European Commission's proposal to allocate 73 billion to the research and innovation activities. Therefore, the budget for FP7 may be drastically reduced. This raises many questions on the feasibility of crucial instruments such as the European Research Council which will have an important impact on the competitiveness of European research and innovation in a global context. The tasks of the European Research Council can only be properly fulfilled if the funding level is such that the necessary European dimension of research can be ensured. Likewise, proposals currently under discussion to increase funding for Erasmus students and other education initiatives cannot be realised in the context of such a tight budget, despite their outstanding achievements in supporting European mobility, a key feature in the establishment of the European Higher Education Area. Failing to provide further support to these programmes would be in contradiction of the aims of the Bologna Process and detrimental to meeting the Lisbon objectives. Therefore European universities strongly support the European Commission and European Parliament's commitment to European research, innovation and higher education and call on national governments to fulfil their pledge to support Europe's future economic, scientific and social development by allocating adequate resources to these crucial areas. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _________________________________________________________________________ Revista studenteasca INFORMIS este prima publicatie de informare si opinie din cadrul Universitatii Politehnica din Bucuresti, o revista realizata exclusiv de studenti si destinata acestora http://www.informis.ro _________________________________________________________________________ Nu poti merge in America oricand! Mergi ACUM! Prin Work&Travel 2006! http://www.ziptravel.ro Work and Travel USA este un program de munca si calatorii reglementat de Guvernul SUA, administrat de Departamentul de Stat _________________________________________________________________________ http://www.e-scoala.ro http://www.e-scoala.ro http://www.e-scoala.ro http://www.e-scoala.ro http://www.e-scoala.ro http://www.e-scoala.ro http://www.e-scoala.ro http://www.e-scoala.ro http://www.e-scoala.ro Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/infoupb/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
