Education and culture are gaining in importance in European Union decision making, Tibor Navracsics, the EU commissioner for education, culture and sport, told a press conference in Veszprém, western Hungary, on Friday.
Speaking ahead of a conference exploring intercity cooperation in educational and cultural projects, Navracsics said that the EU has expanded the Erasmus programme facilitating student exchanges and increased the budget of initiatives such as the Creative Europe Programme and the European Solidarity Corps with a view to strengthening European identity through education and culture. The international exchange of experiences will be a priority in the new schedule of cultural cooperation, to be adopted by the end of 2018, he said.
Veszprém has received 136 foreign students within these programmes and sent 117 to foreign universities, the commissioner noted. It is also in the running for the European Capital of Culture title in 2023, he said.
The conference was attended by delegations from Tartu in Estonia and Ptuj in Slovenia, Veszprém’s twin cities, along with representatives of the British cities of Leeds and Milton Keynes.
As we wrote few days ago, Debrecen Summer University opened for its 91st year on Monday, with 183 students from 37 countries attending with the purpose of studying Hungarian as a foreign language and learning about Hungarian culture and history, read more HERE.
Source: MTI
