Wenzel-Perillo (PPE-DE). – (DE) Mr President, Commissioner Reding, I would like to congratulate Mrs de Sarnez on her excellent report and thank her once again for her cooperation. The Erasmus Mundus Programme can only be passionately supported. On the one hand, the programme’s added value consists in the possibility of mobility, in the learning of foreign languages as well as in intercultural exchanges. On the other hand, Erasmus Mundus accepts, in a pro-active and constructive way, the educational challenges of globalisation. It is precisely because the programme is open to students from third countries that Europe can distinguish itself further in the field of higher education.

In an age of globalisation, there is competition for the best products, the best ideas and last but not least, for the best brains. It is for this reason that Europe must make itself more attractive and competitive as a place of study and education. As draftsman for the opinion of the Committee on Budgets for the first reading of the report in April 2003, I too am particularly pleased today to see that Parliament has notched up one significant success. With EUR 230 million instead of the proposed EUR 180 million, Erasmus Mundus will have a sound financial basis. After all, what can sensible programmes achieve if they are not adequately funded? What we have achieved is creditable, but the current commitments and the new initiatives are altogether inadequate when set against the Lisbon objectives. When money is tight and budgetary resources limited, we cannot expect to reach dizzy heights, but nor should money being tight and limited budgetary resources be excuses for preventing us from making farsighted political commitments.

Ladies and gentlemen, education is the number one investment in the future. Do we want to have the most dynamic and most competitive economic area in the world by 2010? If so, then we have to get our priorities right by investing in research and training, and Erasmus Mundus is a step in the right direction.