§ Mr. John MarshallTo ask he Secretary of State for Education and Science what was the outcome of the meeting of Education Ministers in Luxembourg on 6 October.
§ Mr. MacGregorTogether with the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Wantage (Mr. Jackson), I attended a Council meeting of the European Community Education Ministers on 6 October. We discussed the Commission communication on guidelines for the medium term in the sphere of education and training and agreed conclusions on co-operation and Community policy in this area in the run up to 1993. These conclusions identify objectives shared by member states as a basis for future co-operation activities. A point of particular concern to us was that the conclusions recognise that future co-operation must have special regard to the principles that the fundamental powers in matters of general education policy lie with member states, that Community action should be subsidiary to action by member states and only undertaken where it can usefully complement it, and that linguistic and cultural diversity should be respected.
Ministers agreed to encourage initiatives related to the development of national youth cards and on the co-ordination of national experiments in the public or private sector which might lead eventually to a European youth card.
Ministers also discussed Community co-operation in technical and vocational education and proposals to combat failure at school. The Commission gave presentations on the European Schools and the extension to individual EFTA countries of participation in the COMETT programme of co-operation between higher education and industry in technology training.