By Ján Figel’ - 8th December 2008
“There is an essential quality that stands out when seeking solutions to any problem: creativity”
European education commissioner Ján Figel’
As the financial crisis and its fallout dominate our news headlines, the reader is entitled to ask: what has culture got to do with this? Or, how can education help meet these challenges?
One thing is obvious for me: there is an essential quality that stands out when seeking solutions to any problem: creativity. We need creativity to find the best answers. Each crisis is unique, and we need to find tailor-made solutions each time. Creativity is essential for that to happen.
As Europe charts its way into the future, we must enhance our problem-solving capacity, in every age group, and in every place, in Europe.
The EU’s thematic years, such as the year of education through sport 2004, or the year of intercultural dialogue 2008, have been good tools for raising awareness of topical issues.
This is our main objective for 2009, the European year of creativity and innovation, too: we would like to involve all stakeholders – national or local governments, professional organisations, NGOs, business companies – who are interested in the success of the European project, in a public debate on how Europeans should change for the EU to remain competitive on the global stage as well as a socially cohesive society, united in its rich diversity.
How will we face the economic, societal or environmental challenges of the 21st century? We will certainly need knowledge, as well as a very broad-based set of personal competences, such as mathematical, computer, linguistic or social competences.
These are partly acquired in the classroom, during formal education, but I suspect the greater contribution comes from outside educational institutions, before and after school, in the family and community.
This is what is known as informal learning. It is a huge reserve for Europe, and we must do more to unleash its potential. It is time to talk seriously about it. We have seen from discussions with certain public authorities and business enterprises that we are not the only ones to think so.
For the EU to stand up to the challenges ahead, we must forge an environment that fosters innovation. To do this will mean establishing closer links between schools, universities, the arts and businesses. We need to encourage capacity building in public-private organisations.
The support we have seen for these ideas already convinces me about the potential success of the year, although the true impact of any reforms in these areas, and their benefits to society, will only be able to be assessed years later.
The legal basis of the year is a common decision of the European parliament and of the council, to which were added valuable comments from other partners, such as the European economic and social committee.
As education and culture are matters for which the member states are responsible, the European commission is implementing the measures in the decision through a mechanism of voluntary coordination, cooperation and collaboration that we call the open method of coordination.
This simply means that the European commission and the member states jointly identify common goals and indicators, and then everyone works openly and transparently in whatever way they choose, according to their domestic circumstances, towards the objectives set.
In the context of the European year, this means that the European commission’s services concerned will help identify synergy between their policy areas and the year’s objectives and measures, identify good practices and inform the member states accordingly.
Since the activities of the year in the member states will be financed from existing programmes, we are encouraging the participation of more national authorities that work with EU funds. The visibility of the year will also undoubtedly benefit from greater cooperation with more stakeholders in the public, private and non-governmental sectors in member states.
To that end, the European commission has set up a forum comprising national coordinators of the year, delegates from each member state who will oversee the activities of the year in their country. They will regularly meet to report on what arrangements are available to implement the measures. Most of these reports are already very promising.
The year will also carry its message especially to young people. I have invited prominent personalities, who are known internationally for their creative achievements in the fields of research and science, information and communication and other new technologies, architecture, design, business, entrepreneurship, fine arts, culture and education, to act as ambassadors for creativity and innovation during the year.
I hope they will serve as positive role models for those who intend to pursue a career in these domains. We shall also set up a high-level expert group consisting of outstanding thinkers, who will draft a document with a proposal for priorities or recommendations on how to develop formal and informal educational systems so as to foster individuals’ creativity.
In short, I am confident that public debate during the year will clarify the role that creativity plays in shaping what social scientists call the “European social reality”.
What I would like to see at the end of the year is that the citizens of Europe understand better that by promoting human talents and the human capacity to innovate, we can actively shape this reality, thereby helping Europe to fully develop its potential, both economically and socially.
