Emil StoyanovMember of the European Parliament

On March 23 representative of the European Commission responded to the request of the Member of the European Parliament Emil Stoyanov, dated March 16, that several measures in regards to the adopted amendment to the 2011 Budget, submitted by Emil Stoyanov and Andrey Kovachev and tackling the introduction of civic education on the European Union in secondary schools. Firstly, the European Commission intends to publish in May under the framework "Lifelong Learning", and particularly the programme "Jean Monnet", a call for proposals aiming to support projects for teaching of European Union in general education.The next action will be taken in the second half of 2011, when the Commission will launch a study to examine in which Member states, such training already exists, to what extent and in what form it has been introduced in national education systems.

This indicates that the initiative taken by Emil Stoyanov acquired institutional character and it can be expected that in the coming years in the secondary schools of the EU's Member states civic education on European Democratic citizenship, including studies on Europe and the EU will begin.

Mr Stoyanov commented: "I think it is extremely important that the young Europeans learn in school first about the advantages of the European Union and only later hear populist and xenophobic speeches on EU's disadvantages. This way they will build a more correct idea on the importance of Pan-European policy."