Action 1: school partnerships for European education projects, including teacher exchanges and visits

4. Urges the EIB, with reference to the Innovation 2010 initiative, to fund projects that are directly relevant to innovation; with regard to education and training, calls for the policy goal of the European Union to become a knowledge-based society to be fully supported, with a particular emphasis on innovation-related education projects, both in higher and basic education in order to improve Europe's human potential; supports t ...[+++]he EIB in its efforts to bring less developed areas into the knowledge-based economy;

4. Urges the EIB, with reference to the Innovation 2010 initiative, to fund projects that are directly relevant to innovation; with regard to education and training, calls for the policy goal of the European Union to become a knowledge-based society to be fully supported, with a particular emphasis on innovation-related education projects, both in higher and basic education in order to improve Europe's human potential; supports t ...[+++]he EIB in its efforts to bring less developed areas into the knowledge-based economy;

17. Calls for support to be provided for multilateral projects designed to improve the Member States" education and training systems and, therefore, for European education and training projects under which access to education and vocational training would be regarded as a basic social right, and therefore considers that lifelong education and training should focus on the convergence and recognition of professional qualifications an ...[+++]d expects companies to participate, in accordance with the responsibility they shoulder from a social-policy point of view, in professional training and the development of skills, in cooperation with the responsible bodies;

under COMENIUS, 15 000 schools (i.e. almost 4% of the schools in the 15 Member States) with some 2 million pupils cooperated in 3 700 European education projects;

However, some elements are already available from the intermediate evaluation and the statistics gathered by the Commission and the National Agencies in the participating countries: Approximately 15,000 schools have participated in European Education Projects funded under Comenius Action 1; more than 5,000 teachers have attended a Comenius Action 3.2 in-service training course during the period 1995-1999; the European Education Projects funded under Comenius Action 1 show a positive impact on schools, pupils and teachers, with results such as the acquisition of new skills and knowledge (in particular skills related to the use of inform ...[+++]ation and communication technology and social skills), the improvement of co-operation at school level and between the school and the local community, a stronger inter-disciplinary approach to teaching and learning, and a clearer European dimension.