Commissioner hearings

Malika BENARAB-ATTOU, Greens/EFA coordinator in the CULT Committee, participated yesterday in the hearing of Androulla Vassiliou, Cypriot Commissioner-designate for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth.

Despite notable commitments, "Mrs Vassiliou's answers remained evasive", she regrets, adding that regarding education, "utilitarianism was the main argument. Nothing was said on the strong traditions that we share in Europe as regards the teaching of "humanities", while we are living in an era of change and that implies to give people the means to understand themselves as well as the world they are living in".

Nevertheless, Malika BENARAB-ATTOU welcomes the commitment taken by the Cypriot Commissioner to press for more ambitious funding for EU education and training programs. She also welcomes the importance granted by the Commissioner to the protection of cultural diversity and linguistic minorities. In this respect, Mrs Vassiliou recalled that the protection of this diversity must underlie EU external relations.