STRASBOURG, Oct 13 (Reuter) - The European Parliament

approved on Friday the creation of two cooperation programmes in

higher education and training between the EU, the U.S. and

Canada.

Irish conservative MEP Mary Banotti, who drafted the reports

on the programmes, told the assembly a concerted approach was

needed which would encourage participation by small institutions

and students of lesser-used languages.

Banotti said she was somewhat concerned about selection

procedures and evaluating the programmes and promised MEPs the

culture and education committee would be monitoring them

closely.

Commissioner Emma Bonino Education Ministers were due to

adopt the programmes on October 23 and ask the European

Commission to come up with guidelines for implementing them in

November.

Formal signature should follow in time for the programmes to

start in the 1995/96 academic year.

Bonino assured parliament the selection of participating

institutions would be done by a panel of independent experts.

The programmes have relatively small budgets (6.5 million

Ecus for the U.S., 3.24 million for Canada) and cover projects

which are designed to become self-financing once the programmes

come to an end in five years' time.

Activities covered by the programmes include student and

teacher exchanges, joint development of teaching methods, the

use of new technology, exchanges of information and (in the case

of the U.S.) Fullbright scholarships on EU affairs and EU-US

relations.

Funding for two cooperation projects envisaged under the

programmes could be announced by the Commission before the end

of the month, a Commission official told Reuters.