8 July 2009 - Green paper on Mobility

The European Commission has on the 8 July published a Green Paper entitled 'Promoting the Learning Mobility of Young People'.

As stated in the European Economic Recovery Plan in November 2009, "it is in the times of economic difficulty that investment in education and training is crucial. The mobility of learners should form part of a renewed drive to build Europe's skills and ability to innovate and compete at international level". In July 2008 the "Renewed Social Agenda: Opportunities, Access and Solidarity in the 21st Century Europe" affirmed that the Commission would continue to develop a "Fifth freedom" by renewing barriers to the free movement of knowledge and promoting the mobility of specific groups like young people.

The scope of the Green paper is broad: it aims to address the situation of all young people in different learning contexts - at school, at University, in internships, in apprenticeships, in youth exchanges, volunteer work and vocational travel - in and outside the EU. 

The Green Paper seeks to promote organised learning mobility, meaning that mobility should be linked to specific learning outcomes and lead to the attainment of qualifications, credits and/or professional experience; it promotes mobility across sectors, as well as cross-sector movements (from e.g. world of education to the world of business, or from vocational education to academia, or vice versa); it focuses on physical mobility, however at the same time recognising the value of virtual mobility.

EARLALL will provide a joint response to the Commission and members will soon be invited by the Secretariat to submit their contribution to the joint reply.