Directorate-General for Education and Culture
Education
Brussels, OctoberNovember 2003
SOC/COM/03/045rev 01
WORK PROGRAMME FOR THE YEAR 2004
INTRODUCTION
The Decision of the European Parliament and the Council establishing the second phase of the Socrates programme[1] was adopted on 24 January 2000 and entered into force on 3 February 2000. It covers the period 1 January 2000 - 31 December 2006. Article 7 of the Decision provides for an annual plan of work to be prepared by the Commission. The present document thus constitutes the fifth such work programme in the programme's second phase. The Committee is invited to deliver a positive opinion on the document, in accordance with Article 8(2) of the Decision.
In 2004 the Commission will implement all Actions as outlined in the Socrates decision. The programme will, in addition, contribute to the following political initiatives in the field of education:
–The Report on concrete future objectives of education and training systems. During 2004, Socrates will make an important contribution to implementing the detailed work programme relating to the “Objectives Report”, adopted in February 2002. The work programme identifies the key issues within each of the 13 main objectives of education and training systems to be implemented by the "Open Method of Co-ordination", according to the “integrated approach” agreed with the Education Committee of the Council. In this way, Socrates will also contribute to implementing the key messages identified by the Interim Report which was requested by the European Council and which will be considered by the European Council in March 2004 as part of the follow-up measures of the Lisbon strategy;
–The Action Plan on lifelong learning. The key aspects of the Communication “Making a European Area of Lifelong Learning a Reality”, adopted by the Commission in November 2001 and reflected in the Council Resolution of May 2002, have been the subject of national reports. They were submitted in June 2003 and have been analysed by the Commission with a view to preparing the above-mentioned Interim Report. Various actions to be undertaken relate closely to the target groups of the Socrates programme, and the Actions of the programme will contribute strongly to facilitating these activities during 2004;
–The eLearning programme (2004-2006). The eLearning Action Plan which was adopted by the Commission in 2001 laid the foundations for the eLearning programme which should be launched on 1 January 2004 and whose aim it is to promote eLearning in Europe. The programme consists of four main strands: eTwinning of primary and secondary schools and promotion of teacher training; European virtual campuses; promotion of digital literacy; and transversal actions in the field of eLearning;
–The Action Plan “Promoting Language Learning and Linguistic Diversity”, adopted by the Commission on 24 July 2003, sets out proposals for action to be taken at European level in 2004–2006 with the aim of supporting initiatives taken by local, regional and national authorities. The aim is to secure a major step change in promoting language learning and linguistic diversity, by extending the benefits of life-long language learning to all citizens, improving language teaching, and creating a more language-friendly environment. The actions are funded within existing Community Programmes and activities, including Socrates. The Action Plan will thus be reflected in the general Socrates Call for proposals 2005 as regards the Lingua, Comenius and Grundtvig Actions;
–The European Year of Education through Sport 2004. The year 2004 has been declared the European Year of Education through Sport. It is its aim to promote the social and educational values conveyed through sport, to use sport as a basic pedagogical tool and to promote co-operation between education establishments and sport organisations. It has such a bearing on the Socrates programme as a whole which will support the activities during the European Year.
The first part of the Work Programme deals with a number of implementation issues affecting the programme as a whole. The second sets out the steps envisaged for the coming year in order to carry out the specific Actions of the programme. Annex 1 contains a provisional Calendar of important dates both for the overall management of the programme and for the specific Actions.
PART I : GENERAL ASPECTS OF PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION
1.Programme Committee, Sub-committees and Working Groups
Article 8 of the Decision provides for the establishment of a Committee to assist the Commission in the implementation of the programme. Next to the Committee there are Sub-committees for school education and higher education and the Committee agreed on the establishment of working groups on Grundtvig and Evaluation. For the handling of Joint Actions (Action 7), an inter-committee working group with the programmes Leonardo da Vinci and Youth was established in 2001 in accordance with Article 9(1) of the Socrates Decision.
It is to be noted that under the new rules of procedure, Sub-committees can no longer adopt formal opinions on behalf of the Socrates Committee. They are advisory bodies to the Socrates Committee only.
The Committee will meet on at least three occasions during the year 2004, in February (when the general Call for proposals 2005 will be discussed), in June (when the main item for discussion will be the selection of projects under various centralised Actions) and in November (to discuss the Work Programme 2005 and the budgets 2004 and 2005).
The two Sub-committees will each meet once or twice during the year (see attached calendar). Key issues for discussion are likely to be the selection rounds under various centralised Actions, information, evaluation and monitoring. The three working groups will also meet once or twice per year to assist the Commission on further developments in their fields.
2.Participation of EFTA-EEA countries and acceding / pre-accession countries in the programme
Article 12 of the Programme Decision provides that the Socrates programme shall be open to participation from the EFTA-EEA countries, under the agreement of the European Economic Area, as well as the acceding / pre-accession countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEEC), Cyprus, Malta and Turkey. The conditions and modalities for the participation of the acceding / pre-accession countries were defined in the specific Association Agreements concluded with the countries concerned (with the exception of Turkey, see below) and were adopted by the appropriate bodies. The countries concerned participate on an equal level with the Member States in the implementation of the programme: National Agencies, calls for proposals, selection, contracts, reporting, monitoring and evaluation. Representatives of the acceding countries and of the EFTA-EEA participate as active observers in committee meetings; representatives of the EFTA-EEA and of the pre-accession countries participate as observers in committee meetings as far as the agenda points are of their concern.
On 1 May 2004, the 10 acceding countries will join the European Union. Their status will then switch to the one of Member States. This has an impact on the eligibility of activities under the programme, as all programme activities require the participation of at least one institution from a Member State. Above all, enlargement will have an impact on budgetary arrangements within the programme, as “national entry tickets” will be replaced by Community funds. As a consequence of DG EAC’s policy that enlargement should not have a negative effect on the financial envelopes available for present Member States as a whole, the programme budget will increase significantly in 2004. Against this background, the Commission will revue the distribution of funds between Actions and will calculate the distribution of decentralised funds between old and new Member States by applying the provisions and calculation formulae set out in the programme Decision for Member States. Budgets will be submitted to the Socrates Committee for opinion.
In order to prepare Turkey for participation in the programme, a framework of preparatory measures has been started in 2003. This preparatory phase consists of the following elements:
–Supporting the establishment of necessary structures in Turkey for finalising the preparatory measures and for implementing the Socrates programme itself (network of Turkish Socrates promoters and European resource experts, Eurydice Unit, NARIC);
–Additional training of National Agency staff and Turkish promoters, national launching conference, key documentation available in Turkish, website established and operational;
–Running a series of pilot actions concerning mainly ECTS (selection of Turkish universities and partners in the other countries participating in the programme to develop ECTS agreements started in 2003; exchange students in the academic year 2003/04) and pilot activities in Comenius and Grundtvig, focusing mainly on building relationships between schools, adult education institutions and associations in Turkey and the other countries participating in the programme;
–Organising preparatory visits for all Actions from Turkish institutions to potential partners in the other countries participating in the programme and Turkish participation in ARION visits.
Funding for these preparatory activities for Turkey is provided outside the Socrates programme budget.
It is envisaged that Turkey will join the Socrates programme fully from 2004, i.e. participation in nearly all programme activities taking place in the academic year 2004/2005. A Memorandum of Understanding with Turkey will most likely be concluded and adopted by the appropriate bodies in early 2004. This means that Turkish institutions can apply as coordinators or partners under the general Call for proposals 2004; however, financial commitments for Turkish participants cannot be made before the Memorandum of Understanding has been signed and the Turkish “entry ticket” has been paid.
3.Sound programme management
Efforts to increase the user-friendliness of the programme and to simplify it have continued in 2003: timely selection and contractualisation of projects; a further simplified selection procedure within the Commission which entitles Directors to take selection decisions; maintenance of the lump-sum approach for TCPs; maintenance and further improvement of the two-stage selection procedure following a survey amongst applicants, experts and NAs in November 2002; simplified report forms; more rapid treatment of reports, amendments and appeals.
On 1 January 2003 the new Financial Regulation and its Implementing Rules entered into force. While 2003 is partly a transitional year, in 2004 the new financial regulation will take its full effect. Therefore, in 2004, the Commission will concentrate on adapting and fine-tuning application forms, contracts, report forms and handbooks accordingly. A revised version of the Guidelines for Applicants will also be published in 2004 in order to adapt them to new management approaches (e.p. Erasmus Charta) and to the new financial regulation. In addition, the treatment of reports, amendments and appeals will be further shortened to comply with the new regulatory framework.
4.National Agencies
Enlargement
In 2003, Operating Agreements for NAs have been moved to a multiannual system. This implies that NAs will not have to submit new work programmes for 2004 and the issuing of agreements on decentralised Actions will not be conditioned by the prior signature of new Operating Agreements. However, as a consequence of enlargement, the Community contribution to the NAs of the new Member States will be subject to revision, which will require in turn a revised work programme to be submitted by 20 December 2003, indicators and operating budget from the NAs concerned, in order to amend their Operating Agreements formally upon accession.
Symmetry
As it is intended for the Commission and all NAs to be fully operational in Symmetry after summer 2004, both sides will have to invest greatly in the preparation thereof during the first semester of 2004 (see also point 5 below).
Audits
As of early 2004, DG EAC will start a comprehensive programme of financial and system audits of Socrates, Leonardo and Youth NAs. The audit visits will be undertaken by an external contractor, who will usually be accompanied by DG EAC financial staff. In 2004, around one third of Socrates NAs will be audited. Advance information about the planned audit visits will be sent to the NA’s concerned.
Monitoring
As a follow-up to the monitoring visits to Socrates NAs conducted between November 2001 and September 2002, the Commission requested NAs to submit a self-evaluation report on the basis of the observations and recommendations issued by the Commission following its visit. The self-evaluation reports are subject to analysis; the conclusions of this analysis will be presented to the Socrates Committee in its February meeting. They will also serve as a basis for further monitoring visits to a restricted number of NAs, focusing on institutional and organisational aspects of the NAs, as well as on management and support activities.
A second round of monitoring visits to NAs is planned with an emphasis on monitoring of programme implementation from a policy and best practice point of view. As the first round of visits has shown, the possibility of sharing best practice is greatly appreciated by NAs and further exchange of experiences and dissemination very much welcomed. Furthermore, such monitoring visits will be valuable, as they will ensure that sufficient account can be taken of needs and constraints both from a content and management point of view for preparing the third generation of programmes.
NA meetings
During the year 2004 the Commission will organise regular meetings of the Agencies. The Directors of the National Agencies will meet twice on transversal issues such as information, evaluation, audit, general management, etc. The staff responsible for the different Socrates Actions will also meet two or three times per year. In addition, a training seminar on the practica l implications of the new Financial Regulation will be organised for NA financial agents in January 2004.
Furthermore, a specific meeting with National Agency staff responsible for information matters will possibly be organised in 2004. Such a meeting would aim at establishing better co-operation between National Agencies and the Commission, as well as at exchanging good practice in information and dissemination activities.
Contact seminars and other activities
As in previous years, NAs will be invited to propose contact seminars for all Socrates Actions to be funded in 2004. A restricted Call for proposals for contact seminars in 2004 will specify the selection criteria (e.g.: balanced distribution of seminars among the different Socrates Actions) and will indicate the budget available for each seminar. The restricted Call will also include the possibility to present proposals for other activities, as foreseen in article 4.2.e of the “Provisions relating to NAs”. As in 2003, contractualisation will be under the responsibility of the operational Units in charge of the Socrates Actions concerned.
5. Support structures at Community level
The Socrates Decision provides that in carrying out the programme, the Commission may have recourse to experts and to technical assistance organisations, the financing of which may be provided for within the overall financial framework for the programme.
A key priority as regards the operational support structure to be set in place for the programme, is the design of the new information management system to be developed by DG EAC for all its programmes, Socrates included. It will be used by the Commission, the Technical Assistance Office and the National Agencies for the co-ordination and integrated management of the centralised and decentralised Actions. The system will ensure that common financial and management rules agreed at European level are applied by all actors. This will be all the more important given the increased proportion of the programme to be managed on a decentralised basis. Every effort will be made to ensure an integrated approach across the management of all DG EAC programmes.
With this objective in view, the Commission has been seeking to establish a new unified system, known as SYMMETRY. The development of SYMMETRY started in January 2002 and will be finalised in 2004. The new system shall be fully operational for the handling of applications arriving from 1 November 2004 onwards. In the meantime the Commission maintains the current systems (SocLink, Erasmus NA Report, NETY, …). Intensive training on SYMMETRY will be available to all partners involved in the programme management.
The Commission will continue to be assisted in the implementation of centralised Actions by a Technical Assistance Office. A new Commission Executive Agency will be operational as from early 2005. The transfer of tasks from the Technical Assistance Office to the Executive Agency will be monitored and followed very closely in order to avoid any negative repercussion on programme implementation.
6.Information and dissemination activities
In 2004 information activities on general and specific aspects of the programme need to be continued. The information needs of all target groups need to be satisfied: the general public in the broad sense, the potential participants and the decision-makers.
The objectives guiding the continued information efforts are to publicise the opportunities offered by the programme so as to ensure the largest possible participation; to improve the quality of such participation; to ensure a high profile for the programme; and to disseminate the results of the projects.
The Commission and the National Agencies both have a vital role to play in achieving these aims. The Commission will continue to support the information activities of the National Agencies within the framework of the Operating Agreements. Better co-ordination between the Commission and National Agencies is, however, needed. Information matters will therefore be a regular discussion point on the agenda of the meetings with the Directors of NAs. What is more, specific meetings between the Commission and NA staff responsible for information could be organised. National Agencies will also be asked to continue their Comenius and Grundtvig campaigns, as well as their co-operation with associations or other relays for information campaigns supported by the Commission.
As for dissemination, following the Call for proposals on dissemination activities for centralised Actions, the Commission will launch a restricted Call for proposals on dissemination activities for decentralised Actions in late 2003, which will be addressed to National Agencies only. The aim of the Call will be to carry out a wide range of dissemination activities for all decentralised Actions focusing on thematic, regional or transnational topics.