Cities, urban development and housing problems Three days devoted to urban development, “sustainable cities”, housing facilities and territorial planning. The 27 Member-State ministers in charge of housing, urban and cohesion policies gathered in Marseilles November 24-26. French Presidency-in-Office introduced the meeting’s objective: coordinating measures regarding the practical life of citizens along with housing policies, with special emphasis on the lodging problem experienced by weaker brackets. The second part of the meeting regarded “sustainable cities, as envisaged by the Charter for integrated urban development adopted in Leipzig”. Participants equally addressed social inclusion and cohesion, mobility, energy, and town-planning issues. According to the EU Presidency, “The Union has managed to partly bridge its inner development gaps though economic and social cohesion policies”. Before the new challenges of globalization, exclusion, demography and climate change, regional policy tools and Community policies ought to be further developed while taking into greater account cities’ specific problems within the framework of their local realities”. Foreign languages: progresses in EuropeAn increasing number of students are learning foreign languages in primary school, while more and more countries are including the teaching of two foreign languages in their education programs. Nonetheless, the number of hours devoted to this subject is still very low. These are some of the findings of the survey carried out by Eurydice Network, presented by the European Commission a few days ago. The survey was carried out in the 31 Countries that take part in the “Lifelong Learning” program, over which Education Commissioner Ján Figel’ remarked: “Despite recent progress, a lot of work still needs to be done to provide all students with the possibility of learning two foreign languages in school. This is the objective set by Member States in Barcelona in 2002”. Leonard Orban, Commissioner for Multilingualism, added: “Multilingualism regards European society as a whole. It starts at school and extends far beyond, since we ought to master an increasing number of languages if we want to promote social cohesion and prosperity”. The research points out that “foreign language teaching begins at an early stage”; “in most Countries, two foreign languages are taught in school”; “90% of pupils throughout Europe study English”, followed by German and French. In most cases – Eurydice researchers explained – children learn a foreign language at the age of 8-10. “Nonetheless, the time devoted to teaching a foreign language in primary school is limited (usually less than 10% of school hours) and varies greatly from one country to the next”. A final remark regards the teachers’ low mobility in view of refresher courses with mother-tongue teachers.CAP reform and milk quotaThe gradual implementation of the CAP reform envisaging the abolition of “milk quotas” and financing innovative rural areas. The general agreement reached last week by EU institutions aims at setting the cornerstones of “European Agriculture”. Negotiations between the 27 Member States began in the first months of 2008 under the Slovenian Presidency and are now reaching completion thanks to the mediation of the French President-in-Office. The different items include the implementation of efficient market-regulation tools, along with the creation of “risk-management and food-and-health crisis instruments”, and the possibility of diverting funds to benefit weaker production areas. “A milk-package” envisages “the gradual abolition of milk quotas”. An important chapter is devoted to stepping up rural development. “Modulation policy envisaging the transfer of funds from the first CAP pillar (direct aid) to the second (rural development) – explained French minister Michel Barnier and Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel – will be increased by 5% by 2013, so as to enable funding of six new sectors such as the fight against climate changes, biodiversity, water quantity and management and bioenergies, along with the innovation and the adjustment of the dairy sector”.
