Ploteus

PLOTEUS is an acronym of Portal on Learning Opportunities Throughout European Space, meant to connote πλωτηρ (ploter) which means "navigator" in ancient Greek. It is a European Union web portal, coordinated by the European's Commission Directorate-General for education and culture,^[1] that aims to help citizens find out about education and training opportunities,^[2] throughout the countries belonging to the European Union, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Turkey,^[3] though the latter did not participate in PLOTEUS at its launch, as it was not a member of the Leonardo da Vinci programme yet.^[4] According to France 5, the portal offers an "easy access" to an "excellent source of information" from primary school to postgraduate education.^[5] PLOTEUS has been prioritised as a "project of common interest" by the European Commission (Commission Decision of 23 December 2002, article 8.2.c).^[6][7] The European Parliament and the European Council have confirmed in 2006 their "support for transnational web-based services such as PLOTEUS".^[8] The portal is run by the Euroguidance network,^[9][10] financed by the Leonardo da Vinci programme, and is interconnected with EURES, the European Commission's portal on job mobility information.^[11][12] Both PLOTEUS and EURES are considered as examples of "pan-European services".^[13] After the launch of PLOTEUS and EURES in 2003, the Bologna process drive to favour student mobility in Europe wa further expressed in 2004 by the launch of the Europass program,^[14][15] which is accessible from the EURES portal, as well as PLOTEUS.^[16]