The EUN Office reported on the implementation of the work programme 2005 and presented the six-month financial report for 2005. Discussions also focused on work programme 2006 and on the work done on Internet Safety (Insafe) and the European Learning Exchange.

The EUN Office reported that 2004 was the first year the EUN Partnership was fully active. The EUN Office also reported that both EUN Consortium and EUN Partnership have made an operating profit for the first half of this year.

Presenting the report on the implementation of work programme for the first six months of 2005, Ulf W Lundin mentioned the EUN Newsletter and the corporate portal as new and transparent ways to convey the message about EUN activities to our sponsors and networks. The newsletter (six to date) has received positive feedback from Steering Committee members in a survey conducted over the summer. A new tool for more EUN visibility is the newly started publication series based on a standard EUN format. The first booklet, edited by Alan McCluskey, is on school leadership and is based on Policy and Innovation Committee workshops.

Ulf also described the five current EUN portals, each with a dedicated team. eTwinning is now ‘taking off’ with more than 7,000 schools, a new and more attractive design (previewed by SC members) and a series of teacher workshops planned. Xplora is fast becoming a portal of reference for science teaching, likewise INSAFE for those working on internet safety awareness-raising. Insight also benefited from a refresh and the new portal was presented to Steering Committee members. SchoolPlaza, to be launched October 2005, is a social and professional environment for teachers.

Jan de Craemer reported on the Virtual School closing conference held in Sweden and was thanked for his role in this successful initiative.

Two groups of Steering Committee members discussed the direction EUN should take in the coming year and the priorities of Work Programme 2006. This was informed by a series of presentations and discussions related to the policy strand of the P2P project. The three participating countries (Northern Ireland, France and Finland) described what they had learnt from the three peer learning visits they had undertaken, both visiting and being visited, and the changes that were taking place in policy development as a result of the visits. Presentations by the rapporteur Alan McCluskey and the policy analyst (David Wood) gave members a clear and inspiring view of what the P2P model could achieve in their own context.

Steering Committee members also discussed the Insafe project and a paper on Internet Safety Policies and Practice in Europe and the Learning Exchanges project for which a second meeting took place in Florence in September.

Closing the meeting, EUN Chair Odile de Chalendar, invited members to the EMINENT conference in Paris and asked them to consider inviting their minister to speak at it.

The next Steering Committee meeting will take place in Paris, 7 December 2005 before the EMINENT conference.