Ei-iE

The impact of the financial crisis on education services and on teachers salaries was one of the dominant issues considered when the EI European Regional Committee, which also includes the Executive Board of ETUCE, the body which deals with the European Union issues, met in Brussels on Monday and Tuesday last.

The Committee dealt with a wide range of issues, including proposed by-laws for new European regional structures, reports and recommendations from the Equality and Higher Education Standing Committees and a range of other reports and policy papers on issues including those arising from the work in education of the European Union.

The Committee endorsed a series of recommendations from the Equality Standing Committee on such issues as coeducation, eliminating violence against women and sustaining expenditure on promoting equality during the economic crisis.

The Committee also endorsed proposals for the holding of the next regional conference in Warsaw in November. Reports on the development of the social dialogue process in the education sector in EU and EFTA countries and various other EU related issues were received by the Committee. Details will be available on the ETUCE website.

The Committee members received the final report on the Impact of Pension Reforms on Female Teachers and the report of the outcome of the ETUI/EI/ETUCE study on the payment of teachers. These reports will be made available to member organisations in a printed format in the near future. They will also be published on the EI Europe section of the website when the final editing has been completed. Three new members joined the Committee for the first time. Moldova and Montenegro appointed country representatives and Gita Zollmer of VBE in Germany replaced the President of VBE, Ludwig Eckinger as a member of the Committee. Ludwig is retiring from his post in the union after many years of dedicated service to the members of that organisation. He was also an active participant in EI activities and formerly in those of WCOTP.