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Synopsis December 2012
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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.
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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