Madam President, the LEONARDO programme has got a very grand name but regrettably, of course, one of the proposals by the Council is to cut the budget by something like ECU 172 million. That is why I support, and would call upon Parliament to support, the restoration of the complete budget for this programme. In fact, even if we had a programme of ECU 802 million, even that would not in fact provide the Commission with the kind of resources it would need to achieve all the objectives of the LEONARDO scheme. Let us remind ourselves of those objectives: to provide all young people with access to one, two or more years of vocational training at the end of which they have recognized vocational qualifications; secondly, to ensure that every worker within the Community has access to continued vocational education. Those two objectives alone would cost far more than ECU 802 million.

The Leonardo programme makes very good sense. It brings together a variety of programmes. What we ought to be insisting upon within those programmes is an increase in the quality of training. When I look at the UK, what I see there is not so much quality as Mickey Mouse training schemes which are designed to massage the unemployment figures. I think we should remember that millions of young men and women are becoming increasingly cynical about training. They say: 'training for what, where are the jobs?' Therefore not only has this House the responsibility and the moral obligation to provide the resources for training but it also has an equal responsibility to provide the opportunity to create real jobs for real young people who want to really work hard for this Community.