Early school leave: the Commission’s initiative “More than six million young people – one in 7 in the EU – currently have only lower secondary education or less. This means they have insufficient qualifications” for the job market, “which is one of the main obstacles to the ‘Europe 2020′ goal of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth”. It is one of the conclusions of a EU Commission report on education in Europe, that will be presented in Brussels on January 31st. On the same occasion the Executive intends to promote a set of initiatives to reduce early school leaving and step up education levels of young generations. According to the survey, “young people with only lower secondary education or less are more often affected by unemployment, more likely to be on social benefits and more at risk of social exclusion”. One of the main objectives of Europe 2020 is to cut school leave from the current level of 14.4% to under 10% “in the next decade, at European level”. The Communication that will be presented by Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou, will outline the main causes for early school leaving and its risks for future economic and societal development. The document describes “the impact that early school leaving has on individuals, society and economies, and will provide an overview of existing and forthcoming EU-level measures to tackle the problem. The Commission will also propose a Council Recommendation that would “set out basic guidelines for coherent, comprehensive and evidence-based policies” in EU Member States. Senile dementia, social and health priority in EU27 Almost 10 million European citizens are affected by senile dementia or Alzheimer’s disease: these figures are expected to grow still, given the ongoing population ageing in Europe. For this reason, during the latest plenary sitting, the European Parliament called on the governments of EU27 to make combating and treating Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias a priority, to invest in prevention, treatment and research, to step up cooperation in all these areas. In approving the report by Portuguese MEP Marisa Matias, the Assembly in Strasbourg underlined that every year 1.4 million Europeans develop some type of dementia. Today the total direct medical and social care costs of Alzheimer’s disease in Europe amount to over 100 billion, states the report. The proposals contained in the report include: the setting up of specialist centres and improvements to the skills of professional carers. In order “to increase public awareness” the report proposes the launch of a European Year of Mental Health, facilitating recognition of the early symptoms of dementia, while improving access to diagnosis and drugs. Interestingly the report underlines the importance of improving the well-being of patients’ families, who still today “have to come to grips with social exclusion”.EU Parliament: secret detention in Europe? The European Parliament once more addresses the issue of secret detention facilities in Europe. A report on the subject was already adopted in 2007. A workshop on human rights on Tuesday (25 January) debated the possibility of “obscure sites in Europe”, explicitly referring to American military bases in Europe, temporarily serving as secret detention centres. “Over one thousand CIA-operated flights used European airspace from 2001 to 2005” – reads the EP website www.europarl.europa.eu, which also informs that during the meeting Julia Hall of Amnesty International presented a report titled: “Open secret: increasing evidence of Europe’s complicity in secret detention” published in November 2010. Former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak “spoke of the UN report on secret detention at world level”. As compared to the report of four years ago MEPs asked for “updates on the situation” and “greater control”. “It must be ascertained whether Member States followed the recommendations of the previous report”; since “Secret Detention centres are like a black hole where anything can happen”, said Portuguese MEP Carlos Coelho (EPP), who stressed the need to “stop things like this to happen in the future”.
