We do need education but no thought control

EU Culture and Education Commissioner Jan Figel, who is in Malta on his first visit, speaks to Brussels correspondent Ivan Camilleri on education, freedom and censorship in the light of the ban on the play Stitching.

Mr Figel is quite an unassuming commissioner. The 49-year-old Slovak, father of four does his work with a lot of pomp and media attention, usually associated with other high-profile Commission portfolios, such as justice or economic affairs.

However, over the fast four-and-a-half years, he has been weaving the EU's different educational systems with the aim of building a more dynamic European system that can rival its main competitor - the US.

Before being appointed as his country's first European commissioner, Mr Figel headed Slovakia's accession negotiations with the EU. For him, this was a crucial experience that helped him immensely in his new job in Brussels.

Apart from education, by far the largest chunk of his portfolio, Mr Figel is responsible for culture. Although the Commission usually takes a back seat in this area, letting member states develop their own policies even to consolidate diversity, it still expresses its opinion on certain cultural aspects.

In view of the prevailing controversy in Malta, which erupted when the play Stitching was banned, Mr Figel was asked for his views on censorship. His message was quite clear: for Europe, freedom comes first and foremost.

"Our general approach is freedom and responsibility. Europe is built as a community of free countries but also on certain principles and these are two sides of the same coin," he said.

"Freedom to express, freedom to act, but also responsibility for the respect of basic human rights starting with human dignity. In the past, there were several difficult issues related to censorship and freedom, such as the incident of the Danish cartoons or the recent incident in the UK where a film was banned. Although this is basically the responsibility of member states, and we fully respect it, our approach is to defend freedom.

"Obviously, there are some limits. When religious or ethnic feelings are affected it's up to national authorities to act accordingly," Mr Figel said.

But wouldn't Europe be freer if censorship ceased to exist?

Mr Figel said he preferred and chose freedom - freedom of expression, and freedom of creativity with mature responsibility.

"At the end of the day this is also about education and our behaviour. In a broader sense, culture is about our values, how we relate to others and how we understand the world," he said.

There were certain limits defined in certain areas, such as the protection of minors and there were rules on this. But, in general, the basic principle of Europe was freedom.

Touching on his subject, Mr Figel said that though education in Europe was a matter of national competence and every country was allowed to introduce and manage whichever system it wanted, the EU spent billions of euros each year trying to help member states improve their educational output and performance.

Despite Malta's progress in this sphere, particularly over the last years, the island was still underperforming in certain areas when compared to the EU average. Malta was still not producing enough graduates, particularly in scientific subjects, the rate of early school leavers was the highest in the EU and life-long learning was weak.

According to Mr Figel, Malta had to concentrate on quality. Malta progressed in its educational policy especially in the last decade. It was active in the Bologna Process where it tried to evaluate and coordinate higher education and its results so far have been satisfying.

However, Malta required more momentum in life-long learning. This was a necessity because it was not enough to finish school. Education had to continue. Malta also had to improve its recognition of degrees and study periods and quality assurance.

"I won't say all this is dramatic as we have similar situations in other countries. My main message is now that Malta has managed to do massive structural reforms in its education system, it needs to shift its focus towards achieving better quality. This is important to produce better students, better graduates and obtain better results in the economy and the country's competitiveness," he said.

For Mr Figel, consensus in education was the best recipe for progress and better performance. All progressive action in education was based on raising awareness and building consensus on the need to improve. "When you do that it is then easy to transfer action into a political level where consensus is essential to keep reforms moving."

In education, change takes years but when success was achieved the effects are immediate. It will mean Malta will have a better innovation index, more competitiveness and a better economic performance.

In this area, he said, Europe could be very helpful. Apart from the funds, Malta could benefit from the experience of others who have already passed through certain reforms, to avoid past mistakes and move forward.

"Together, Europe can face the challenges much better and this is also applicable in education."