European Research, Innovation and Education December 2012 – 2012/12

This edition of the SwissCore Synopsis as well as previous editions are available on our website.

SwissCore - Contact Office for European Research, Innovation and Education

98, rue du Trône in 1050 Brussels • Tel. +32-2-549 09 80 • Fax +32-2-549 09 89

infodesk@swisscore.org • www.swisscore.org

Contents

SEEN FROM BRUSSELS

The calm before the storm 2

RESEARCH

Position Council on Horizon 2020 complete 3

Priorities of the Irish Presidency 4

> Publications 5

E-health 2014-2020 action plan 5

Excellence counts for Science Europe 5

Eight new members to ERC’s Scientific Council 5

INNOVATION

Business investments in R&D regain pre-crisis level 6

DOSSIER: Unitary Patent finally receives green light 7

> Publications 8

Mobile internet use in European enterprises 8

A second chance for insolvent entrepreneurs 8

EDUCATION

Irish Presidency wants to get Erasmus for All adopted 9

FOCUS: Fighting youth unemployment 10

> Publications 11

Skills Panorama 11

Focus on ICT and education 11

‘Apprenticeships Alliance’ in Berlin 11

INTRA MURO

Two new Student Trainees 12

Happy New Year 12

20 December 2012 SwissCore 2

SEEN FROM BRUSSELS

The calm before the storm

2013 promises to become a decisive

year for Europe from 2014 to 2020

with regards to the path of European

(dis-) integration, the European Mone-

tary Union (EMU) and, of course, the

adoption of the knowledge programmes

Horizon 2020 for research and innova-

tion (see page 3) and Erasmus for All for

education, youth and sports (see page

10). Facing two weeks of light and

reflection, please find hereby some

reading suggestions providing food for

thought.

Returning to ‘Global Europe: 2050’,

published in November 2011, might al-

low for some critical reflections on which

of the three scenarios we all have actu-

ally been working on during 2012: ‘No-

body cares: standstill in European inte-

gration’, ‘EU under threats: a fragment-

ed Europe’ or ‘EU renaissance: further

European integration’?

The Chair of the Alliance of Liberals and

Democrats for Europe (ALDE), Guy Ver-

hofstadt, and the Co-Chair of the

Greens-European Free Alliance, Daniel

Cohn-Bendit, in the European Parliament

presented a manifesto ‘For Europe’

aiming at triggering a ‘post-national

revolution in Europe’ and proposing a

constituent assembly for 2014 drafting a

new European constitution.

Empower European Universities (EEU),

liaised to the United Nations University –

Maastricht Economic and Social Re-

search Institute on Innovation and

Technology (UNU-MERIT), has published

a policy report on ‘The State of Uni-

versity Policy for Progress in the

EU’. It contains an attempt to assess

the contribution of government policies

regarding funding and autonomy to per-

formance in education, research and

economic innovation.

Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker has presented

his view and memories on the estab-

lishment of the European Research

Council in his book ‘Europas For-

schung im Aufbruch: Abenteuer in

der Brüsseler Bürokratie’. His pre-

sents an analysis on the nature and

functioning of the European Commission

in the light of the challenges ahead.

For all those who still have not read it,

the ultimate tip 2012 is ‘The Passage

to Europe: History of a beginning’.

The Dutch historian and political philos-

opher and member of the cabinet of

Herman Van Rompuy, Luuk Johannes

van Middelaar, therewith won the 6th

European Book Prize on 5 December

2012.

May these recommendations sharp-

en your spirit and mind and provide

you with arguments for this decisive

year ahead. We would like to thank

all our readers for the loyalty and

trust during 2012 and wish you a

happy New Year.

EC Global Europe: 2050 (pdf)

For Europe (pdf)

Europas Forschung im Aufbruch: Abenteuer in der Brüsseler Bürokratie

The Passage to Europe: History of a beginning

20 December 2012 SwissCore 3

RESEARCH

Position Council on Horizon 2020 complete

The Competitiveness Council (Council)

has met from 10 to 11 December 2012

in Brussels and adopted conclusions

concerning the Specific Programme of

Horizon 2020, the Strategic Innovation

Agenda (SIA) of the European Institute

for Innovation and Technology (EIT), the

realisation of the European Research

Area (ERA) and the strengthening of the

International Cooperation in Science and

Technology (INCO S&T).

After having reached Partial General

Approaches (PGA) on the regulation es-

tablishing Horizon 2020 and its Rules for

Participation and Dissemination (RfP),

the Council now completed its position

on Horizon 2020 with a PGA on the

Specific Programme. The Council

again showed its strong support for the

proposal of the European Commission

(EC), but opposed the intended reduc-

tion to only one Programme Committee

and four sub-configurations by opening

the path for between four to seven-

teen sub-configurations. Moreover,

the Council endorsed the concepts of

‘twinning’ and ‘teaming’ to widen the

participation in Horizon 2020. The Irish

Presidency intends to get Horizon 2020

adopted in spring 2013 (see page 4).

The Council also reached an agreement

on the proposed SIA for the EIT. It

confirmed the three topics for the third

next wave of Knowledge and Innovation

Communities (KIC) – i.e. healthy age-

ing, food security and raw materials

– to be launched in 2014. The decision

on the remaining three topics, originally

proposed for 2018, has been postponed

and their number has been made de-

pendent on the available funds. The EC

is invited to come forward with pro-

posals on this fourth wave by 2016.

Following on the communication on ‘A

Reinforced European Research Area

Partnership for Excellence and Growth’

from July 2012, the Council has adopted

conclusions expressing its commitment

to realise the ERA by 2014. It decided to

include the ERA Monitoring Mecha-

nism (EMM) into the European Se-

mester and to take 2011 as the base-

line year. This essentially means that

the member states must address the

identified issues in the ERA communica-

tion within their reporting to the EC and

in their National Reform Programmes to

be presented to the EC by April 2013.

The Council however paid a lot of atten-

tion to methodological issues. These

range from a closer link between EMM

and Eurostat, via the opportunity for

member states to deliver additional data

going back to the start of the Ljubljana-

process in 2007 to a stronger role for

the ERA Committee (ERAC) in analysing

the data and drawing conclusions from

the EMM.

The Council finally discussed the com-

munication on ‘Enhancing and focusing

EU international cooperation in research

and innovation: A strategic approach’.

There seems to be a large consensus

amongst the member states on a more

strategic approach to INCO S&T and

support for the proposed multi-

annual roadmaps between the EU and

third countries. The Council also ex-

pressed its support to the Strategic Fo-

rum for International S&T Cooperation

(SFIC) and underlined the need to allow

for a ‘variable geometry’ in the im-

plementation of the INCO S&T strategy

by the member states. The Council is

expected to adopt conclusions on this

topic at its May meeting.

Council Press release (pdf)

Council ERA conclusions (pdf)

20 December 2012 SwissCore 4

Priorities of the Irish Presidency

Ireland will hold the Presidency of the

Council of the European Union (Council)

from 1 January to 30 June 2013. The

Presidency is set under the motto ‘Sta-

bility, Jobs and Growth’ with a special

focus on research and innovation. As a

matter of fact, the first half of 2013 co-

incides with the trialogue between the

European Commission (EC), the Europe-

an Parliament (EP) and the Council on

the adoption of the next Framework

Programme for Research and Innovation

(Horizon 2020). The precise timetable of

adoption is however bound to an

agreement on the Multi-annual Financial

Framework (MFF), which sets the budget

of the European Union from 2014 to

2020. The Irish Presidency aims at com-

ing to an agreement on the MFF in the

beginning of 2013.

More specifically, the thematic foci of

the Irish Presidency can be seen in the

series of conferences that it will organ-

ise. They will concern responsible re-

search and innovation (from 25 to 26

February), Joint Programming Initia-

tives (from 28 February to 1 March) and

research careers and mobility (from

14 to 15 Mai) and are in line with some

key objectives of the European Research

Area (ERA), that is to strengthen the

transnational collaboration and competi-

tion, to facilitate the free circulation of

knowledge and researchers and to im-

prove the attractiveness of research

careers. Strengthening the innovation

capacity of Small and Medium En-

terprise (SME) and European re-

gions will be further addressed by the

Presidency through the EURO SME con-

ference and the Week of Innovative Re-

gions in Europe (WIRE) from 5 to 7

June. These events will mostly take

place in Ireland. The Irish Presidency

has foreseen as well two Competitive-

ness Council meetings in February and

May, in which research-related topics

will be addressed. An additional informal

Competitiveness Council meeting will

take place at the beginning of May and

will address issues related to the partici-

pation of SME in Horizon 2020.

The Council Presidencies traditionally

come up in trios that set common objec-

tives and a joint work plan for an eight-

een months period. This time, it is Ire-

land that will start the trio, followed by

Lithuania for the second half of 2013

and Greece for the beginning of 2014. In

a document released on 7 December

2012 in which they lay out their priori-

ties, the three Presidencies have

made it clear that an agreement on

Horizon 2020 is key. The Presidencies’

effort will be thus directed to ensure

that the programme will run as of 1 Jan-

uary 2014. The ERA, which has to be

‘completed’ by 2014, and EC’s proposal

for international cooperation in science

and technology will also receive special

attention. On the ERA in particular, the

trio has claimed that it will ‘give con-

stant attention to the follow-up and im-

plementation of this imitative’.

Irish Presidency website

Council 18 month programme (pdf)

> RESEARCH

20 December 2012 SwissCore 5

> Publications

E-health 2014-2020 action plan

On 7 December 2012, the European Commission

(EC) has published its action plan on e-health from

2014 to 2020. The action plan sets the focus on

the patient and aims at a reduction of health care

costs and a stronger control for the patients of

their care. Besides efforts to clarify legal uncer-

tainties and building synergies between different

healthcare systems, the initiative will support

research into personalised medicine. As a result,

the e-health action plan will be integrated into the

societal challenge ‘health, demographic change

and wellbeing’ of Horizon 2020 and will address

topics such as the use of information and commu-

nication technologies for a digital and personal

medicine, new digital media integrating social and

health care systems and innovative instruments

for better data analysis, diagnostics and decision-

making.

EC press release

EC e-health action plan

Excellence counts for Science Europe

Science Europe, the umbrella organisation of 51

European research funding and performing organi-

sations, has released a position statement on the

next Framework Programme for Research and

Innovation (Horizon 2020) on 14 December 2012.

Considering the strong financial uncertainty in

Europe, Science Europe calls for a stronger sup-

port for excellent and curiosity-driven blue-sky

research. The organisation recalls that basic re-

search is the first step in the innovation process.

Science Europe welcomes simplification in Horizon

2020, the focus on interdisciplinary collaborative

research, gender equality and open access to

scientific publications. On funding models, Science

Europe asks the European Commission to come

with clearer definitions for direct and indirect costs

and advocates the use of full cost accounting.

Science Europe position statement (pdf)

Eight new members to ERC’s Scientific Council

On 13 December 2012, eight new members have

been appointed to the Scientific Council of the

European Research Council (ERC). Composed of

twenty two members, the Scientific Council is the

governing body of the ERC and is in charge of

defining the overall scientific and funding strategy

of the organisation. The appointment is part of the

staged renewal of the Scientific Council, which

started in 2011. The new members will be in place

until the end of the Seventh Framework Pro-

gramme for Research and Technological Develop-

ment (FP7). They will thus contribute to the defini-

tion of ERC’s strategy for the next framework

programme from 2014 to 2020 Horizon 2020. In

parallel, seven experts have been nominated by

the European Commission with the task of identi-

fying the next President of the European Research

Council as of 2014. The group of experts will be

led by Lord Sainsbury of Turville, Chancellor of the

University of Cambridge.

EC press release on the renewal of the Scientific Council (pdf)

EC press release on the search of new ERC president

> RESEARCH

20 December 2012 SwissCore 6

INNOVATION

Business investments in R&D regain pre-crisis level

On 6 December 2012, the European

Commission (EC) has published its

‘2012 EU Industrial R&D Investment

Scoreboard’ based on a sample of

1’500 companies, which are the top in-

vestors in Research and Development

(R&D). These companies - of which 405

have their registered office in the EU,

503 in the United States (US) and 296 in

Japan - account for almost 90% of the

total expenditure in business R&D, i.e.

the cash investment that is funded by

the companies themselves. The results

show that the EU with its 8.9% in-

crease in industrial R&D invest-

ments nearly matches the US with

9% and rises above pre-crisis level

of 8.1% in 2008.

Back at the top of the ranking is

Toyota, replacing Roche, the biggest

investor last year and now at num-

ber 7. The second highest R&D invest-

ments were made by Microsoft followed

by Volkswagen, the highest ranking EU

company and the only one amongst the

top 10 and Novartis at number 4. Swit-

zerland has no other companies

amongst the Top 50. Daimler, Nokia and

Sanofi follow Volkwagen’s lead within

the EU.

The investments have paid off in terms

of total sales for the information and

communication technology and health

sectors with software and computer ser-

vices being the most profitable ones. In

terms of total R&D investments, the

leading sectors worldwide were

pharmaceuticals and biotechnology,

technology hardware and equip-

ment, and automobile and parts. In

the EU, the automobile and parts sector

dominate the other two. Even though

the total amount of the investments

were one of the lowest of all economic

sectors, the banking sector shows the

highest increase worldwide (21.8%) and

in the EU (19.5%).

Total worldwide R&D investments by

leading companies amounted to €501.7

billion with €178.4 billion in the US,

€144.6 billion in the EU, €111.5 billion in

Japan and €21.5 billion in Switzerland.

According to the report, the gap be-

tween US and EU R&D can be explained

by the relative specialisation of the US in

R&D intensive sectors, which amount to

over two thirds of the US as opposed to

just over one third of EU scoreboard

companies.

Foreign-owned firms R&D expenditures

contribute to a large share of gross R&D

investments notably in small EU coun-

tries such as Ireland, Belgium, Austria

and the Czech Republic and are an im-

portant source of employment and com-

petitiveness, also in larger EU countries.

They have increased in every single EU

member state from 2003 to 2007, ex-

cept for France and Sweden where they

remained stable.

With a stable 61 to 62% share, Europe

is still the most attractive location for US

R&D Foreign Direct Investments (FDI),

which account for two thirds of the

worldwide total, this in spite of new

emerging scientific and technological

powers. The report suggests that on an

aggregate level, there is no evidence

that more foreign R&D activities of EU

firms would lead to less money spent in

the EU. In fact, R&D abroad seems to

be complimentary to R&D in the

home country.

.

EC 2012 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard (pdf)

20 December 2012 SwissCore 7

Unitary Patent finally receives green light

The Council of the European Union (EU)

has endorsed the ‘patent package’ con-

sisting of two regulations and the

Agreement on the Unified Patent Court

(UPC) on 10 December 2012. On the

following day, the European Parliament

(EP) gave its positive vote, which

means they should get formally

adopted before the end of this year.

The two regulations set the ground for a

unitary patent protection and its lan-

guage arrangements. As Spain and Italy

will not take part, the procedure of

‘enhanced cooperation’ had to take

effect, allowing for the remaining 25

countries to adopt common rules

without an EU-wide consent.

This major breakthrough in the creation

of the unitary patent has been the result

of over 30 years of discussions and ne-

gotiations. Soon after the foundation of

the European Patent Office (EPO) in

1977, it became obvious that the exist-

ing system is too costly. Since a pro-

posal of the EC laying out the issues in

the year 2000, the Council of the EU has

been trying to find a solution. Major ob-

stacles have been the single jurisdic-

tional system and the language regime.

So far, a ‘European’ patent could be filed

at the EPO in its 38 member countries,

which include the EU member states and

amongst others Switzerland. However,

the granted patent was a bundle of

national patents, which fell under na-

tional jurisdiction, sometimes requiring

costly translations into the local lan-

guage or in case of litigations even cost-

lier legal cases in the respective coun-

tries.

In future, it will be possible to protect

intellectual property rights in 25 of

the 27 EU countries by filing for the

unitary patent. This will reduce the

costs of a procedure from about €36’000

to initially €6’500 and finally to €5’000

and make it more competitive with a US

patent at €2’000. Patent information on

applications can be done in any EU lan-

guage, but have to be translated into

one of the three official languages Eng-

lish, French or German. The costs of

translation will be reimbursed in certain

cases to universities and SME. After

granting, the patent rights need to be

translated into the other two languages

at the cost of the applicant. In future,

automated translations will be available

reducing the costs dramatically. During

a transition period of up to 12 years,

higher costs occur due to the require-

ment to translate German and French

applications into English and English

applications into one other EU language.

In case of patent infringements, the

newly established UPC with a central

division of the Court of First Instance in

Paris and specialised divisions in London

and Munich - dealing with litigation cas-

es in chemistry and engineering respec-

tively - will rule. The Court of Appeal

with the Registry will be located in Lux-

embourg, the Patent Mediation and Arbi-

tration Centre in Lisbon and Ljubljana

and training facilities for judges in Bu-

dapest.

The agreement establishing the UPC is

expected to be signed on 18 February

2013 and will enter into force once it has

been ratified by at least 13 EU member

states, including Germany, France and

the UK. The first unitary patents are

expected to be validated in 2014.

EPO information on unitary patent package

EP press release on approval EU unitary patent rules

> INNOVATION

20 December 2012 SwissCore 8

> Publications

Mobile internet use in European enterprises

On 11 December 2012, the European statistical

office Eurostat has published an analysis of data

concerning the use of Information and Communi-

cation Technologies (ICT) and specifically new

ways of accessing and using the internet in Euro-

pean enterprises. The data gives a useful input in

the evaluation of the current state of the flagship

‘Digital Agenda for Europe’ from the Europe 2020

strategy and gives an indication for the demand

for ICT specialists on EU labour markets. The re-

sults of the survey undertaken amongst a 10%

sample of the 1.5 million enterprises in the EU,

shows that there is an almost complete internet

coverage, mainly using fixed lines. 88% of large

organisations across the EU provide their staff with

portable devices for the access of mobile internet

whereas only 43% of small companies do. Obsta-

cles in using mobile devices for internet access are

mainly connectivity, security and cost-related.

About two third of enterprises now have a dedicat-

ed web presence, whereas only 15% on average

use it to sell their services and products. The dif-

ferences between the sectors are quite substantial,

with 70% of accommodation suppliers offering

online bookings and technical, construction and

manufacturing sectors making almost no use of e-

commerce. Countries that achieve the highest

ratio of total turnovers online are the Czech Re-

public, Luxembourg and Ireland. In all internet

related business areas, Romania and Bulgaria have

the largest gap to the leaders. The published data

also proved that ICT specialists are in high de-

mand with 21% of all enterprises employing at

least one and 40% of the employers having diffi-

culties filling vacancies.

Eurostat report (pdf)

A second chance for insolvent entrepreneurs

On 12 December 2012, the European Commission

has published a communication proposing ‘A new

European approach to business failure and insol-

vency’. A stakeholder consultation and several

studies had disclosed a number of shortcomings of

the current Insolvency Regulation, which was

adopted in 2000. In particular its focus towards

liquidation rather than restructuring and saving

businesses in financial difficulty has been criticised

in the recent past. From 2009 to 2011, on average

200’000 firms went bankrupt in the European

Union (EU) each year, with a quarter of the cases

having a cross-border element. The proposal for a

new regulation suggests action to be taken to

differentiate between honest and dishonest bank-

ruptcies by introducing separate liquidation pro-

ceedings and framing and applying a ‘fast track’

liquidation in case of honest bankruptcies. It also

suggests harmonising proceedings and removing

uncertainty and barriers of unequal treatment for

creditors. The communication emphasises that the

EU should pay special attention to the needs of

Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) in their

roles as creditors and debtors and offer specific

support for the prevention of business failures,

post-bankruptcy and second chance, out-of-court

settlements and in-court procedures. The next

steps will be a deeper analysis of the differences in

national insolvency procedures and a public con-

sultation to help identify any other concerns, pos-

sible solutions and policy options.

EC communication (pdf)

> INNOVATION > INNOVATION

20 December 2012 SwissCore 9

EDUCATION

Irish Presidency wants to get Erasmus for All adopted

Ireland will hold the Presidency of the

Council of the European Union during

the first semester 2013. After a partial

general approach was reached on Eras-

mus for All by the Education Council in

May 2012 and the release of the opinion

of the Committee on Culture and Educa-

tion (CULT) of the European Parliament

(EP) on 27 November (see Synopsis

2012/11), the last discussions before

the adoption of this programme - i.e.

the trialogue between the European

Commission (EC), Council and EP - will

take place under the Irish Presidency.

Given the fact that EP and Council,

which are the two institutions that have

the final say, do not have major diver-

gences on the text, the Irish Presiden-

cy intends to get it adopted as soon

as possible. No final decision will how-

ever be taken until the adoption of the

Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF)

2014-2020, also expected in the first

semester 2013.

If the programme is not adopted under

Irish Presidency, it should be done under

Lithuanian Presidency, which will

cover the second semester 2013 before

Greece takes over for the first semester

2014. Together, these three countries

form a ‘trio Presidency’ and have defined

priorities for the next 18 months. Com-

pleting work on Erasmus for All in 2013

is one of them. Another overarching pri-

ority is to focus on the types of skills

needed to promote and maintain

growth. In the field of higher education,

emphasis will be placed on the issue of

equity and efficiency and special atten-

tion will be given to internationalisa-

tion strategies. In the context of the

Copenhagen Process, further work will

be done on quality assurance in the field

of Vocational Education and Training

(VET). One objective is to increase the

impact of the National Qualifications

Frameworks (NQF), which should be

established in most countries by 2013

and referenced to the European Qualifi-

cations Framework (EQF). What con-

cerns schools, the trio will focus on pre-

school education and teacher recruit-

ment and training.

More concretely, for the six coming

months, the Irish Presidency will focus

on ‘quality and equity’ in education.

This will be reflected in all events organ-

ised by the Presidency, e.g. the confer-

ence on European university ranking

from 30 to 31 January 2013, the Euro-

pean Qualification Framework

(EQF)/National Qualification Framework

(NQF) conference from 12 to 13 March

and the conference on formal, informal

and non-formal education from 9 to 10

April. Finally, the agenda of the two

Education Councils (no informal Coun-

cil is planed) will be very much in line

with the agenda of the EC: on 15 Febru-

ary, the ministers will discuss the EC

communication on ‘Rethinking Educa-

tion’ (See Synopsis 2012/11) and come

up with Council conclusions on this mat-

ter; on 16 May, the debates will focus on

the revalorisation of the teaching

professions and the social dimension of

higher education.

Irish Presidency website

Council 18 month programme (pdf)

20 December 2012 SwissCore 10

FOCUS: Fighting youth unemployment

On 5 December 2012, the European

Commission (EC) has published the

Youth Employment Package. The

measures proposed build on the actions

of the ‘Youth Opportunities Initia-

tive’(YOI) launched in December last

year (see Synopsis 2012/01). The com-

munication on ‘Moving Youth into Em-

ployment’, which is part of the package,

briefly analyses the results of the YOI so

far. In the past 12 months, at least €10

billion from the European Social Fund -

which is the main instrument supporting

youth employment measures - have

been re-allocated for measures foreseen

by the YOI. However, the EC sees a

need for further action. This is confirmed

by the 2013 Annual Growth Survey pub-

lished on 28 November 2012, which

stresses that the member states should

do more to fight youth unemployment,

improve employability and support ac-

cess to jobs for young people. Therefore

the EC urges the member states to in-

troduce a Youth Guarantee Scheme in

2013; calls on the social partners to

work towards a Quality Framework

for Traineeships; announces the set-

up of a European Alliance for Ap-

prenticeships to improve the quality

and supply of apprenticeships and the

launch of a stakeholder consultation on

further developing the EURES portal.

Concretely, with the proposed concept of

a Youth Guarantee Scheme, the EC

wants the member states to ensure that

that “young people receive, within four

months of having left school or be-

coming unemployed, a good quality

offer of employment, continued educa-

tion, an apprenticeship or a traineeship”.

Finland for example has already put in

place a framework similar to the one

proposed by the EC. The objective is

that the member states discuss and

adopt the proposed scheme next year.

The idea to set up a Quality Framework

for Traineeships had already been an-

nounced in April 2012 in the Employ-

ment Package. The aim of such a

framework is to ensure that traineeships

provide young people with high-quality

work experience. A first consultation

with the social partners pointed out that

they do not agree on the content and

form of such an initiative. The solu-

tion proposed by the EC would consist in

a social partner agreement or an EC

proposal on quality elements, to be

transposed into the member states na-

tional practice and/or the national legal

system. The EC now proposes two other

solutions: issuing a quality label to

host organisations complying with

certain determined standards, or

setting up a website with a train-

eeship panorama with updated in-

formation on traineeship conditions

in the different member states. With-

in the Youth Employment Package, the

EC is now seeking for the social part-

ners view on the impact of the three

solutions proposed.

Finally, the idea behind the Alliances for

Apprenticeships is to increase the supply

of apprenticeships and to strengthen the

dual training Vocational Education

and Training (VET) systems. This

alliance would bring together all VET

stakeholders and help developing com-

mon dual training curricula for various

professions, facilitate recognition of ap-

prenticeships undertaken abroad and

promote an appropriate framework. A

first step in that direction was recently

taken in Berlin by the Ministers of Edu-

cation from Germany, Greece, Italy,

Lithuania, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain,

who signed a memorandum on joint

cooperation in VET (see page 9).

EC youth employment package

EC annual growth survey 2013 (pdf)

> EDUCATION

20 December 2012 SwissCore 11

> Publications

Skills Panorama

On 7 December 2012, the Directorate-General

Education and Culture (DG EAC) of the European

Commission (EC) has launched the European Skills

Panorama. This new online tool, a joint initiative

from DG EAC and DG Employment, provides an

overview of past, recent, current and future trends

in occupations, skills and sectors in the 27 mem-

ber states of the European Union as well as in

Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein. Quantitative

data come from the European Vacancy Monitor,

i.e. national public employment services as well as

from skills forecasts studies of the European Cen-

tre for Vocational Training (Cedefop), Eurostat and

the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and

Development (OECD). Qualitative data are based

on the outcomes of the Sector Skills Councils and

on national sources, i.e. again the national em-

ployment services.

EC European skills panorama

Focus on ICT and education

From 9 to 10 December 2012, Norway and the

Cypriot Presidency of the Council of the European

Union have organised a ministerial conference in

Oslo on ‘Opening up education through technolo-

gies: towards a more systemic use for a smart,

social and sustainable growth in Europe’, in which

Switzerland participated. Structured along three

axes – i.e. opening up learning and teaching,

opening up content, opening up collaboration – the

conference provided an occasion to discuss the

transformation needed so that the education sys-

tems are in line with the digital era of the 21st

century and the rapid technological changes. The

debates of the conference will be taken into ac-

count by the European Commission for its upcom-

ing initiative ‘Opening up education’ expected for

mid 2013.

Presidency ministerial conference

‘Apprenticeships Alliance’ in Berlin

From 10 to 11 December 2012, the Ministers of

Education from Germany, Greece, Italy, Lithuania,

Portugal, Slovakia and Spain met in Berlin to sign

a memorandum on joint cooperation in Vocational

Education and Training (VET). They agreed on a

set of measures to develop dual training models

and to improve the image and quality of VET. This

new ‘alliance’, a German initiative, is meant to

provide lasting support to bilateral and multilateral

initiatives in VET. The European Centre for Voca-

tional Training (Cedefop) supports the initiative.

So does the European Commission, which stated in

the recent Youth Employment Package that it will

support the creation of a European Alliance for

Apprenticeships (see page 10)

European Apprenticeships Alliance

> EDUCATION

20 December 2012 SwissCore 12

INTRA MUROS…

Two new Student Trainees

For the first time and exceptionally,

SwissCore will have two Student Train-

ees from February to July 2013. Car-

men Kneubühler, who will work in the

field of innovation funding instruments,

is currently finishing her Master in Public

Management and Policy at the Swiss

Graduate School for Public Administra-

tion (IDHEAP) in Lausanne. Half of her

time will be dedicated to a research pro-

ject to identify future opportunities for

collaboration in innovation at European

level. In the field of research, Daniel

Fuhrer will dedicate 50% of his time to

determine consequences and opportuni-

ties of Horizon 2020 and the European

Research Area (ERA) for the Swiss re-

search funding instruments. He is en-

rolled in the Master of European Studies

at the Institut des études européennes

of the University of Geneva, but has

already been enjoying Brussels during

his exchange semester at the Université

libre de Bruxelles this autumn. The first

opportunity to meet our new Student

Trainees will be at our Research & Inno-

vation Seminar from 23 to 25 January

2013 here in Brussels. We very much

look forward to welcoming Carmen and

Daniel to our team.

Happy New Year

from left to right: Martin Müller, Florence Balthasar, David Bohmert, Maria Youssefzadeh, Anja Belaey, Ueli Staeger and Tawanda Daka

With appreciation for our collaboration, we send you our warmest wishes for a happy

and prosperous 2013.

Your SwissCore Team