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EURONEST PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY

ASSEMBLÉE PARLEMENTAIRE EURONEST

PARLAMENTARISCHE VERSAMMLUNG EURONEST

ПАРЛАМЕНТСКАЯ AССАМБЛЕЯ ЕВРОНЕСТ

Committee on Social Affairs, Education, Culture and Civil Society

NEST_PV(2016)0321

MINUTESof the meeting of 21 March 2016, 18.00-20.30

Brussels

The meeting opened on Monday 21 March 2016 at 18h08, under the co-chairmanship of MrGeorgi PIRINSKI (items 1 to 4) and Ms Karine ATSHEMYAN (items 5 to 8).

Mr PIRINSKI welcomed all the members of the Committee on Social Affairs, Education,Culture and Civil Society, informing them that interpretation was available, as requested, in ENand RU. He further reminded of the seating arrangements foreseen in order to allow smoothelectronic voting.

1. Adoption of draft agenda

M PIRINSKI informed that point 6, on the Development of active citizenship as a way tostrengthen local democracy in EaP countries, would have be postponed at the request of theCommittee of the Regions (CoR); the point had, indeed, been included in the hope that the CoRrelevant rapporteur, Mr ADAMOWICZ, Mayor of Gdansk, would be able to make apresentation on this topic. The rapporteur not being available, the point would therefore betreated in a forthcoming meeting.

2. Approval of the minutes of the meeting of the Committee on Social Affairs,Education, Culture and Civil Society held on 5-6 November in Tbilisi, Georgia

M. PIRINSKI warmly thanked the Georgian parliament for the organisation of this successfulmeeting in Tbilisi in November 2015 – which also featured a field-trip to Signagi, whereMembers were greeted by M. Levan BERDZENISHVILI, Chair of the European IntegrationCommittee, which allowed all of them to get acquainted with Georgia's rich cultural heritage -a dimension within the remit of the Committee.

The minutes, prepared by the Georgian secretariat, were thus adopted without changes.

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3. Communications by the Co-Chairs

Mr. PIRINSKI informed that the EaP Co-Chairmanship of the Committee would betemporarily taken over by the 1st Vice-Chair on the Eastern Partner's side, Ms KarineATSHEMYAN, given that the position of EaP Co-Chair, reserved for a Member of theAzerbaijani Delegation to the Euronest PA, was still vacant. He further informed Members thatan ongoing reflection on the functioning of the Assembly would probably mean that, in thefuture, Committees would be encouraged to hold joint sessions. For the Social AffairsCommittee, this would mean joint sessions with the Political Committee, while the Energy andEconomic Committees would, similarly, meet together.

4. Consideration of amendments and vote on the draft report on "the mutualrecognition of professional qualifications work experience and the universitydiplomas within the Bologna process"; Co-Rapporteurs Ms Norica NICOLAI(MEP) and Ms Oxana DOMENTI, MP (Moldova).

Mr PIRINSKI reminded that a first exchange of views with a presentation of the draft reporthad taken place in Tbilisi on 5 November 2015, in presence of the Bologna Follow-Up Groupmembers from Georgia. Their views enriched the debate, and probably proved stimulating toall Members - who were invited to submit amendments until a deadline, which was extendedto early February. He then invited the Committee’s two Co-Rapporteurs, Ms Norica NICOLAI(ALDE, RO) and Ms Oxana DOMENTI (Moldova) to take the floor for a general presentationof the topic.

Ms NICOLAI warmly thanked her Co-Rapporteur, as well as fellow Committee Members fortheir contributions to the draft report; she noted that 56 amendments had been received, as wellas some Compromise Amendments, something which demonstrated the real interest this reporton the mutual recognition of professional qualifications work experience and the universitydiplomas within the Bologna process had generated. The issue remained a pertinent one for theEU Member States, where subsidiarity was an element which meant that ‘we are far from beingunited in this area’, as well as for EaP countries, where efforts were often obstructed by‘bureaucratic procedures’. One of the main challenges tackled in the report was quality ofeducation; as to the mutual recognition of professional qualifications and work experience,concrete steps were, furthermore, proposed, such as the creation of a European NeighbourhoodProfessional Card.

Fellow Co-Rapporteur Oxana DOMENTI reminded of the wider context of this report, whichwas the internationalisation of higher education, and issue that was closely linked to the labourmarket gaps being witnessed in some countries. She furthermore stressed that manyamendments were aiming at improving the recognition of the professional qualification process,which was very often, marred by too costly, too lengthy, or too bureaucratic procedures. Manyamendments, backed by the co-rapporteur, were thus proposing the creation of an mutual &automatic procedure scheme in the wider European High Education Area; other aspects whichwere key to the report included equal treatment, increasing trust in the quality and transparencyof qualifications, and addressing the phenomenon of ‘diploma mills’ ; Ms DOMENTIfurthermore underlined Erasmus+ as an efficient tool which contributed to student mobilityacross the continent, and hoped that it would be further fostered in the future, with themobilisation of ambitious budgetary resources.

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Ms Kamyla PARTIKA and Ms Mette ANDERSEN (DG Education and Culture) as well as M.Konstantinos TOMARAS and Ms Eva VAN DER MOSEN (DG Internal Market, Industry,Entrepreneurship and SMEs) all intervened on behalf of the European Commission; theyreminded that the Bologna process allowed addressing the issue of academic qualifications, butnot of professional qualifications.

Academic recognition of degrees was the key to the process, but there still was a very unevenlevel of implementation of the Bologna Process amongst participating states. Erasmus+ was avery useful instrument to further enhance modernisation efforts in the EaP countries, wheremore support towards the autonomy of higher education institutions was needed. As to ‘qualityassurance’ in higher education, it was reminded that the Yerevan ministerial communiqué hadrevisited the relevant standards and guidelines.

As to professional qualifications, it was stressed that, in the EU, whether or not, and how, toregulate a profession remained within the competence of Member-States; the directive tofacilitate professional recognition of qualifications only concerned a limited number ofprofessions; the last attempt to launch a, wide-ranging, automatic recognition scheme in the EUdated back to the eighties, as the exercise had proved, in practice, to be an extremely difficultone for Member States to agree upon. The European Commission thus felt that while the issuewas, indeed, a very important one, it was perhaps preferable to follow a ‘step by step’ approach.Setting a mutual recognition target, rather than an automatic recognition one, was thereforeprobably more realistic in the short/middle term.

The following Members spoke during the ensuing debate: Ms Chiora TAKTAKISHVILI(Georgia), M. Tevan POGHOSYAN (Armenia), Ms Iskra MIHAYLOVA (EPP, PL), M. VitaliiKURYLO (Ukraine), Mr Vitalii KORCHYK (Ukraine), Mr Jaromir STETINA (EPP, CZ), MsAgnieszka KOZLOWSKA-RAJEWICZ (EPP, PL), Ms Guguli MAGRADZE (Georgia). Thediscussion thus focused on raising issues pertaining to old mentalities still present in theeducation sphere and the need to address this issue as well as to tackle corruption (MsTaktakishvili); more cooperation with EU structures could also help to strengthen academicindependence in EaP higher education institutions, as, in some cases, dealing with the legacyof the (soviet) past also meant turning the page of an ‘over-politisation’ of some highereducation institutions (Mr Poghosyan). The value of projects involving the Youth such asErasmus+ and Erasmus Mundus was, furthermore, underlined by many participants (notablyMs Mihaylova). On the other hand, it was also reminded that not all EU-Member States hadratified the Lisbon Recognition Convention, even though all EaP countries had done so (M.Kurylo).

At the issue of the debate, the draft report was put to the vote alongside with the proposedamendments and compromise amendments; it was unanimously adopted, as amended, with 15votes in favour, zero against, and zero abstentions.

5. Exchange of views on the situation of women in the labour market in the EasternPartnership countries.

Co-Chair Karine ATSHEMYAN recalled that this subject was proposed by MsKOZLOWSKA-RAJEWICZ (EPP, PL) in the framework of the last Committee meeting in

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Yerevan as a topic for a forthcoming report of our Committee. It had, thus, already been agreedat the time that while the 2015/2016 report would focus on the Bologna process, the one after,in 2016/2017, would deal with the issue of women in the labour market in the Easternpartnership countries. This development had taken place in parallel with the EuronestParliamentary Assembly, which had scheduled its inaugural meeting for the following day, inpresence of the World Bank and the EEAS.

Ms ATSHEMYAN furthermore informed Committee Members that, in order to stimulate acommon reflexion on the matter, the European Parliament's Policy Unit had produced aBriefing, which had been distributed. While it remained to Members to make a political choicein deciding which elements ought to be further underlined and which were the issues whereconcrete scrutiny and proposals were needed, this technical briefing already provided usefulinput on the following issues: trends and differences in the Eastern Partnership countries whenit came to women's integration in the labour force; followed by a brief panorama of the situationcountry per country.

Ms ATSHEMYAN also pointed out that the last Eastern Partnership Summit declaration ofMay 2015 in Riga explicitly stated that gender equality was a promising new area ofcooperation. The European Neighbourhood Policy Action Plans of all EaP countries (exceptBelarus) thus all included references to gender equality; as the European Parliament wasplanning an own-imitative report on the matter, Euronest PA Members were looking forwardto remaining in touch in the following months with their colleagues from the EP's own Women'sRights and Gender Equality Committee. Ms ATSHEMYAN furthermore briefed Membersextensively about the situation in Armenia, presenting relevant statistical data aboutdevelopments in the field.

Taking the floor, both Ms Magradze (Georgia) and Ms Koslowska-Rajewicz (EPP,PL) stressedthe value of the Women’s Forum, which had just been set-up with the help of Ms Heidi Hautala(Greens/EFA, FIN), Co-President of the Euronest PA; Ms Koslowska-Rajewicz underlined thatwomen’s rights were indissociable from human rights, and at the very core of European culture.Despite a difference in the national context, the same challenges could therefore be observed inEU and EaP countries alike – affecting, for instance, the right to work (labour market gaps,pension gaps) or maternity issues; in all cases, gender inequalities, however, came at an extraeconomic cost – which meant that tackling the issue ought to be a priority both in Human Rightsand Economic Development terms.

6. Exchange of views on the Development of active citizenship as a way to strengthenlocal democracy in EaP countries; presentation by Mr Adamowicz, Mayor ofGdansk, Committee of the Regions rapporteur

This point was postponed to a forthcoming meeting of the Committee, at the request of theCommittee of the Regions and due to the non-availability of Mr ADAMOWICZ.

7. Planning and preparation of the Committee's activities for 2016-17

Ms ATSHEMYAN reminded Members that the Euronest PA Plenary was expected to discussand decide the measures, which could allow Committees to work more efficiently; one of these

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was, probably, for the Social Affairs Committee to be called to work more closely with thePolitical Affairs Committee in the future.

As to the frequency of meetings, statistical evidence had shown that, unfortunately, some EaPMPs but, mainly, MEPs had met with difficulty, in all 4 Committees, in following a pace of 2meetings a year - and this was particularly evident in November 2015, when meetings were notheld in the margins of a Euronest Plenary. A preliminary proposal had however been submittedby Georgia in hosting the next SOC meeting in late September 2016; Members would beinformed of any such development, depending also on the outcome of the Euronest PA reformongoing discussions.

8. Any other business

Ms Oxana DOMENTI (Moldova) took the floor to underline that the issue of social securityrights, in the context of migration, was one which merited closer scrutiny, given the difficultiesfaced in aggregating different periods of time worked in different countries, under various andnot always compatible social security schemes, by migrant workers; if not by way of a report,given that the current rules of procedure only allowed one report being discussed at a time, MsDomenti proposed the creation of a working group within the Committee in order to furtherexplore the subject and for this Working Group’s findings to be shared with fellow Committeemembers. Mr Tevan POGHOSYAN (Armenia) strongly seconded the proposal, which wasduly noted by the Co-Chairs, calling Ms Domenti, and fellow Members interested inparticipating to this working group, to contact in a written form the Secretariat.

The meeting closed at 20h26.

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EURONEST PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY

ASSEMBLÉE PARLEMENTAIRE EURONEST

PARLAMENTARISCHE VERSAMMLUNG EURONEST

ПАРЛАМЕНТСКАЯ AССАМБЛЕЯ ЕВРОНЕСТ

Committee on Social Affairs, Education, Culture and Civil Society

Meeting of 21 March 2016Brussels

Participating MEPs

Mr Giorgi PIRINSKI, Bulgaria, S&D, Co-ChairMr Marek JUREK, Poland, ECRMrs Agnieszka KOZŁOWSKA-RAJEWICZ, Poland, EPPMrs Iskra MIHAYLOVA, Bulgaria, ALDEMrs Norica NICOLAI, Romania, ALDEMr Traian UNGUREANU, Romania, EPPMrs Tatjana ŽDANOKA, Latvia, GreensMr Bogdan Andrzej ZDROJEWSKI, Poland, EPP

Participating EaP Members

Mr Artak ZAKARYAN, ArmeniaMrs Karine ATSHEMYAN, Armenia, 1st Vice Co-ChairMr Tevan POGOSYAN, ArmeniaMrs Guguli MAGRADZE, GeorgiaMrs Chiora TAKTAKISHVILI, GeorgiaMrs Oxana DOMENTI, MoldovaMr Vitalii KURYLO, UkraineMr Vitalii KORCHYK, Ukraine