The president of Harghita County Council, Mr. Csaba Borboly together with a local specialist, Mr. László Csák, participated in a meeting with the representative of the Lithuanian presidency of the EU, Mrs. Milda Špėlytė-Letulienė, on 5th of November 2013, in Brussels. The meeting was organized within the framework of the consultation series aiming the elaboration of the Committee of the Regions’ draft opinion concerning the European higher education in the world, Mr. Csaba Borboly being the rapporteur of the document.
Mrs. Milda Špėlytė-Letulienė presented the Lithuanian perspective on higher education: it is considered relevant the European university networks’ openness toward the Eastern-European students in order to widen the inner system of European higher education, since this would result in qualitative improvement as well. Mr. László Csák sketched the main principles of the draft opinion. Accordingly, the focus should be put on smaller, multicultural universities, respectively on university networks. He also added that more attention should be given to national minorities’ languages and the role of local and regional authorities should be increased in this regard too. It was also emphasized that it is important to have not only a unilateral mobility of European students, but there should be an endeavor focused on balancing the ‘knowledge attraction’.
Mr. Csaba Borboly considered relevant the present meeting that proved to be very successful since they have agreed in the majority of the direction lines, concluding that the starting point is adequate. He expressed his gratitude for the Committee of the Regions, who made possible the organization of this meeting. The Commission for Education, Youth, Culture and Research (EDUC) of the Committee of the Regions will discuss the draft opinion on 13th of November.
The president of Harghita County Council was nominated as rapporteur of EDUC Commission on 16th of September, in Brussels. According to the manual provided for the members, rapporteurs are nominated for the elaboration of documents regarding which the Committee of the Regions wants to share its vision and opinion. These can be legislation proposal, public opinion, white paper, green paper, report or other requests coming from the three main institutes of the European Union to the Committee of the Region. In order to reach the utmost objective of the draft opinion on political and institutional level, the rapporteur has the responsibility to take part in any events and meetings concerning the issue of elaborating efficiently the draft opinion.
Miercurea Ciuc, 6th of November 2013
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