31.12.2003 Official Journal of the European Union L 345/1 (Acts whose publication is obligatory) DECISION No 2317/2003/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 5 December 2003 establishing a programme for the enhancement of quality in higher education and the promotion of intercultural understanding through cooperation with third countries (Erasmus Mundus) (2004 to 2008) THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE (4)  The European Ministers of Education, meeting in EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Com- munity, and in particular Article 149 thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission (!), Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (), Having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions (°), Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty (%), Whereas: (1)  The European Community should contribute to the development of quality education, inter alia, through cooperation with third countries. (2)  The conclusions of the Lisbon European Council (23 and 24 March 2000) emphasised that if Europe is to meet the challenge of globalisation, Member States need to adapt their education and vocational training systems to the demands of the knowledge society. (3)  The Stockholm European Council (23 and 24 March 2001) indicated that work on the follow-up to the objec- tives of education and training systems should be assessed in the context of a worldwide perspective. The Barcelona European Council (15 and 16 March 2002) confirmed that opening-up to the wider world is one of the three basic principles of the work programme for 2010 for education and training systems. () O] C 331, 31.12.2002, p. 25. () O] C 95, 23.4.2003, p. 35. () O] C 244,10.10.2003, p. 14. (*) Opinion of the European Parliament of 8 April 2003 (not yet published in the Official Journal), Council Common Position of 16 June 2003 (O] C 240 E, 7.10.2003, p. 1) and Position of the Euro- pean Parliament of 21 October 2003 (not yet published in the Offi- cial Journal). Bologna (19 June 1999), stated in their joint declaration that it is necessary to ensure that the European higher education system acquires a worldwide degree of attrac- tiveness appropriate to Europe's major cultural and scientific achievements. (5)  The European Ministers in charge of higher education meeting in Prague (19 May 2001) further emphasised, inter alia, the importance of enhancing the attractiveness of European higher education to students from Europe and other parts of the world. (6) In its communication on reinforcing cooperation with third countries in the field of higher education, the Commission argued that greater internationalisation of higher education is necessary to respond to the chal- lenges of the process of globalisation, identified overall objectives for a third-country cooperation strategy in this field and suggested concrete measures for achieving these objectives. (7 The Council resolution of 14 February 2002 on the promotion of linguistic diversity and language learning in the framework of the implementation of the objec- tives of the European year of languages 2001 (°) under- lines the need for the European Union to take into account the principle of linguistic diversity in its rela- tions with third countries. (8)  The academic institutions in the European Union aim to increase the share of internationally mobile students. There is wide recognition of the great potential repre- sented by the combined individual strengths of European higher education institutions, by their educational diver- sity and their wide experience in networking and in cooperation with third countries, which enable them to offer courses of great quality unique to Europe and allow the benefits of international mobility to be shared more widely within the Community and its partner countries. () 0J C 50, 23.2.2002, p. 1.