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Education was absent in the early years of European integration between 1948 and 1968, with the focus on building up economies in the aftermath of World War II. The founding fathers of the European Community felt that the Council of Europe, an intergovernmental body established in 1949, was the right forum to discuss co-operation in education and culture between Member States and this remained the case in the following decades.

However, the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community in 1957, did contain the seeds of future co-operation in education and training, laying down several principles for dealing with issues such as on-the-job training and the recognition of qualifications across borders.

Towards the end of the 1960s, the situation gradually changed as the vision of the European Community widened. Calls for Community action in education – in addition to traditional areas such as economic and social issues – became increasingly heard from different sources. However, there was no consensus on how action should be organised and, over the course of several years, it became clear that a new basis for co-operation would be needed.

First action plan

It was not until 1976 that the principles of co-operation were adopted by education ministers under the first community action plan on education. This non-binding resolution identified six priorities for actions – educating the children of migrant workers, closer relations between education systems in Europe, the compilation of documentation and statistics, higher education, the teaching of foreign languages and equal opportunities. School education was also taken on board.

Community actions started with pilot projects, study visits and exchanges of information, which initially focused on the transition of young people to working life; co-operation and exchanges between universities, through joint study programmes that were the precursor of the Erasmus programme; the education of children of migrant workers; and the exchange of information.

Co-operation was difficult in these early years due to the lack of a legal basis at the Community level and limited resources. Action was blocked completely between 1978 and 1980, but took off again in the early 1980s. However, these years created the essential conditions for more significant progress later on and carved out a totally new way of co-operating within the European Community. These can be seen as the first application of the subsidiary principle that now underpins EU laws. The principle means that member states co-operate while respecting the diversity of national situations and the power of Member States' governments.

The second half of the 1980s saw the launch of a number of diversified and increasing large scale projects – Comett was the first, followed by Erasmus, PETRA, 'Youth for Europe', Lingua, Eurotecnet and FORCE. The adoption of these programmes was not easy at the political level, with national governments wary of interference. However, on the ground they were received well and proved to be major successes from the start.

Co-operation accelerated with the implementation of these programmes, with budgets far larger than those for the first action programme. For comparison, between 1990 and 1994 funding for all the programmes accounted for €1 billion, compared with 10 years earlier, when €14 million had been earmarked for the first action programme between 1980 and 1984.

Growing importance

The expansion and higher profile of Community co-operation on education and training boosted the recognition and status of these areas within the Commission. The Maastricht Treaty in 1992 gave education legal status in the newly established European Union, and made the European Parliament and Council jointly responsible for co-operation in education and training. Action entered a new phase, especially with the rise of globalisation and the information society increasingly underlining the importance of education and training. The concepts of 'knowledge based society' and 'lifelong learning' were coined and became increasingly well-known.

By 1995 a separate Directorate General of the European Commission was set up for education and culture. Programmes were consolidated in two stages. From 1995 to 1999 the six programmes were merged into two – Socrates for education and Leonardo da Vinci for vocational training. New measures were created such as Comenius for schools which now came under Community jurisdiction. The period from 2000 to 2006 saw further transformations, but it was only with the fourth and current generation of programmes (2007-2013) that more significant changes could be made.

The current picture: lifelong learning

The launching of the Lisbon strategy in 2000, laying out the economic, social and environmental strategy for the EU up to 2010, brought education and training further to the forefront in its aim of achieving a Europe of knowledge. The strategy brought about the greatest changes to co-operation in the area and has made education and training of key importance to the EU.

For the first time, a single integrated framework was adopted by the European Council and a single programme devoted to lifelong learning and a new 'Youth in action' programme launched. Again, the funds allocated to education and training increased dramatically. In the 2007-13 period the total should exceed over 1% of the Community budget, compared to only 0.1% in 1986.

After the Lisbon strategy was adopted, a new basis for policy co-operation was established, under the 'Education and training 2010 work programme'. This established the basis for all subsequent education and training actions, set five overriding benchmarks and applies a new working method – the 'open method of co-ordination'.

Meanwhile, other developments have been happening in parallel. The Bologna process was launched in 1999 by 30 countries to create convergence between higher education systems and achieve a European higher education area by 2010. The Copenhagen Process, signed in 2002, enhanced co-operation in vocational education and training across Europe.

The decision to continue successful co-operation at EU level under the open method of co-ordination was taken in May 2009, when the Education Council adopted the follow-up to the 2010 work programme, the "Strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training (ET 2020)".