Presentation and competencies

Welcome words

Welcome to the website of the Committee on Culture and Education. Here you will find information about the work we do - for example, agendas of our forthcoming meetings, or draft reports and amendments to these - and information about the Members of the Committee, so that you can contact any of them directly. You can also follow Committee meetings as they happen, via live webstreaming.

Within the Parliament, the Committee is responsible for education, culture, youth, sport and the cultural and educational aspects of the EU's media policy. It plays an equal role with the governments of the Member States in adopting new laws and supervising the EU's programmes in these areas. These include the Lifelong Learning programme, which pays for the Erasmus student exchange programme; the Culture 2007 programme, which supports the European Capitals of Culture; and the Media 2007 programme, which has helped finance production of a number of successful European films, such as Slumdog Millionaire. The Committee also regularly holds public hearings to gather evidence from experts about aspects of its work.

I am proud to be Chair of this Committee and hope that this website will help you to follow its work more easily.

Doris Pack

Chair, Committee on Culture and Education

Presentation and competencies

Committee responsible for:

1. the cultural aspects of the European Union, and in particular:

(a) improving the knowledge and dissemination of culture,

(b) the protection and promotion of cultural and linguistic diversity,

(c) the conservation and safeguarding of cultural heritage, cultural exchanges and artistic creation;

2. the Union's education policy, including the European higher education area, the promotion of the system of

European schools and lifelong learning;

3. audiovisual policy and the cultural and educational aspects of the information society;

4. youth policy and the development of a sports and leisure policy;

5. information and media policy;

6. cooperation with third countries in the areas of culture and education and relations with the relevant

international organisations and institutions.