Emma McClarkin MEP condemns schools propaganda plan

East Midlands MEP Emma McClarkin has today spoken out against a European Commission plan which she fears will lead to schoolchildren being force-fed pro-Brussels propaganda.

The Conservative MEP said the proposals, contained in a report to the European Parliament, could lead to pupils having compulsory lessons in how to be good Europeans and receiving a biased version of the EU’s benefits to society.

The report, by French European People’s Party MEP Jean-Marie Cavada, proposes wide-ranging changes to the network of European Schools, the educational establishments across Europe set up primarily to educate the children of EU politicians, civil servants and other staff.

It calls for the development of “the European dimension in education” and argues that the European Schools must foster European integration

It also asks that the European schools be promoted in Britain and other member states to “encourage the emergence of European citizenship from a very young age”. The report even asks member states to include teaching about the EU in their national syllabuses.

Emma, who is the Conservative education spokesman in the European Parliament, said:

“This looks like a licence to force-feed pupils a very one-sided, starry-eyed version of what the EU is and does for its people.”

Miss McClarkin added: “I fear it will be a carte blanche to push the federalist agenda that is so close to the hearts of the Eurocrats. When you are targeting youngsters and their education, that amounts to political interference. When you are talking about pushing propaganda at children, that is a little sinister.

“The setting of education policy should remain firmly within the hands of member states. This is just another example of the EU infringing member state subsidiarity.”