Spain, Girona, March 2004

Third transnational meeting and conference under project Evaluation and Self-evaluation in in-formal education under SOCRATES Programme - GRUNDTVIG II, 27 th March – 31 st March 2004 , Girona , Spain

Within the frames of the offered social programme organised by the host institution the partners were offered the possibility to get to know each other more closely as well as to get acquainted with the situation of life-long learning in Girona , Spain in a more informal way.

A common Conference under the motto of “LIFE LONG LEARNING. THE EUROPEAN CHALLENGE” was held in the Conference center LA CAIXA, c/Santa Clara.

Partners from Malta and Great Britain ( England ) who were visiting the hosting partner institution under another joint project also took participation in this event.

The objective this important event was to analyse the situation as regards adult education and related issues in Catalonia in comparison to the developments in other countries of the European Union and accession partner countries. The topic covered permanent training of young people and adults and a number of speakers from the Spanish side presented the situation in Spain . They were mainly authorities dealing with the problems of adult education, such as Educative Cooperation and Scientific International Office (Generalitat of Catalonia) and Department of Welfare and Family also from Generalitat of Catalonia.

The second part of the conference was focused on adult education experiences in Europe . All the partners were invited to present briefly this issue in their country. The Bulgarian representatives gave their input by making a well-focused presentation concerning the core problem and all the recent developments in that aspect by drawing the attention of the audience to the basic document recently elaborated by the European Commission - "Making an European Area of Life-long Learning a Reality". Interesting input was given also by the Italian and Romanian partners as well as by Malta who presented their organisation and its activities to all the parties concerned. It should be noticed that this conference was announced to the public and free access was ensured to the Girona society, also providing all the necessary facilities and equipment for disabled people.

The afternoon session was focused on the issue of proposals for the Socrates Programme - criteria for application, formation of partnerships, preparation and submission of project proposals, ways of looking for new partners and opportunities to apply under the various actions of the Socrates Programme.

Questionnaires will be produced by each of the partners which will be examined during the next meeting.

· Life-long learning in Bulgaria.doc

· Life-long learning in Italy.doc