The SOCRATES programme was an educational initiative of the European Commission; 31 countries took part. The initial Socrates programme ran from 1994 until 31 December 1999 when it was replaced by the Socrates II programme on 24 January 2000, which ran until 2006. This, in turn, was replaced by the Lifelong Learning Programme 2007-2013.[1] The countries participating in the programme were the then 25 European Union countries, the then candidate countries Romania and Bulgaria; Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Turkey. The programme is named after the Greek philosopher Socrates. Its declared aims were:
- "To strengthen the European dimension of education at all levels"
- "To improve knowledge of European languages"
- "To promote co-operation and mobility throughout education"
- "To encourage innovation in education"
- "To promote equal opportunities in all sectors of education"
Some of its building blocks were:
- The Comenius programme - relating to primary and secondary education.
- The Erasmus programme - relating to higher education.
- The Grundtvig programme - relating to adult education.
- The Lingua programme - relating to education in European languages.
- The Minerva programme - relating to information and communication technology in education.
The Lifelong Learning Programme 2007-2013 is the successor programme as adopted.
