The main item discussed was the status and issues of the exchange of learning resources in Europe. Members discussed three questions in four groups: Issues and obstacles in setting up national repositories; Value of a European federation of repositories; Use of learning objects and other learning resources in the classroom. After a reporting back session, Frans van Assche of the EUN Office presented an authoritative view on issues and opportunities for exchanging content. Steering Committee agreed to hold a meeting in Brussels on 17 May 2005 and recognised the importance of this work in the EUN’s work programme for 2005.

National experiences and the status of eTwinning in Europe was the subject of the second item. Ulf W Lundin presented the draft progress report showing that over 4,000 schools were registered and 10 per cent of them were in partnerships.

Steering Committee members gave a national view of the initiative. One mentioned that the pattern of participation was unusual, for example the United Kingdom had one of the highest participation levels.

It was important for all agencies to support the national support service, e.g. promoting eTwinning on national portals, because eTwinning is an agreed Europe-wide action. It was agreed to discuss eTwinning at every Steering Committee meeting and to receive regular progress reports on the action.

The Steering Committee adopted the work plan for 2005. Work is presented as 30 tasks within nine actions in three strands: School networking and services, Knowledge exchange on ICT policy and practice and Interoperability and content exchange. The tasks described can be achieved within the budget presented to Steering Committee. One member described the plan as a “rich programme of work” and said that EUN was doing much more with few resources than many national organisations.

At the same time Steering Committee approved the Annual Report for 2004 and it will now go for final editing and publication online next month. The executive summary will also be produced as a ten page booklet. Many representatives undertook to publish it on their national portals and distribute the report to colleagues. Switzerland will produce a one page summary of the report in French and German.

There was a brief discussion of the EMINENT conference to take place in Paris on 8-9 December 2005. Within the overall theme of widening the use of the ICT in Europe, five workshop topics are proposed:
• Learning about innovation from the use of technology in classrooms
• Concrete experiences of schools with new tools
• Key actions to widen the use of ICT
• Internet safety and the protection of minors
• Creating and exchange digital resources
• eLearning strategies and co-operation.

Other matters covered at the meeting included an agreement that there should be a final taking stock conference of the Virtual School initiative and plans for an evaluation and feedback study of the EUN, to be presented at the next meeting of the Steering Committee.

The next meeting of the Steering Committee takes place in Vilnius, Lithuania from 22-23 September 2005. The P2P project policy reviews will be discussed in a workshop on the second day.