The Culture Committee of the European Parliament issued a report with a range of measures to promote mobility among young Europeans and improve educational and training opportunities. According to MEPs, among the measures needed are to increase funding for EU youth mobility programmes and EU-wide recognition of qualifications. Support for education-business cooperation, paid traineeships and measures to tackle discrimination in education are also taken into account in the report.

MEPs welcome the new political initiative of the Commission 'Youth on the Move', which includes an EU target for 40% of young people to complete higher or vocational education. Moreover, the report includes that Member States should invest at least 2% of their GDP in higher education and take action to reduce early school leaving to below 10%.

Funding for EU mobility and youth programmes such as Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union 2007-2013 (Erasmus, Leonardo da Vinci, Comenius, Grundtvig), Marie Curie, Erasmus Mundus and Youth in Action, must increase, believes the Committee. It wants practical barriers to mobility removed but adds that this must not lead to a brain drain away from certain parts of the EU and suggests more "internationalisation at home", such as creating international cooperation networks at universities and making use of virtual mobility.

According to MEPs, mobility programmes should also be available to vocational students, teachers and youth workers. They call for EU-wide recognition of school, vocational and university qualifications, adding that children should learn two non-native languages from an early age, including those of neighbouring countries, and young people from neighbouring non-EU countries should be allowed to take part in EU mobility programmes.

Jobs for students and young graduates

In the report approved MEPs belive that ties between education and business must be improved and university programmes brought closer to labour market needs, with vocational education being modernised and public-private partnerships encouraged. However, higher education should not only ensure employability but also nurture the creativity and innovativeness of young people and help them develop intellectually and socially.

Open universities, online education and more flexible university timetables for working students should be encouraged. MEPs also highlight the need to encourage entrepreneurship among students and promote the recruitment of young people, for example through publicly funded work programmes.