Towards a European Education Area by 2025

Harnessing the full potential of education and culture as drivers for job creation, economic growth and social fairness

Towards a European Education Area by 2025

The Commission presented today its contribution to the Social Summit in Gothenburg on 17 November, where EU leaders will discuss the social dimension of Europe, including education and culture.

As part of the ongoing debate on the Future of Europe, the Commission set out its vision and concrete steps to create a European Education Area by 2025.

The primary responsibility for education and culture policies lies with the Member States. However, over the years the European Union has played an important complementary role and the Commission believes it is in the shared interest of all Member States to harness the full potential of education and culture as drivers for job creation, economic growth and social fairness as well as a means to experience European identity in all its diversity.

The European Area of Education should include:

Making mobility a reality for all: by building on the positive experiences of the Erasmus+ programme and the European Solidarity Corps and expanding participation in them as well as by creating an EU Student Card to offer a new user-friendly way to store information on a person's academic records;
The mutual recognition of diplomas: by initiating a new 'Sorbonne process', building on the "Bologna process", to prepare the ground for the mutual recognition of higher education and school leaving diplomas;
Improving language learning: by setting a new benchmark for all young Europeans finishing upper secondary education to have a good knowledge of two languages in addition to their mother tongue(s) by 2025;
Promoting lifelong learning: by seeking convergence and increasing the share of people engaging in learning throughout their lives with the aim of reaching 25% by 2025;
Supporting teachers: by multiplying the number of teachers participating in the Erasmus+ programme and eTwinning network and offering policy guidance on the professional development of teachers and school leaders;
Creating a network of European universities so that world-class European universities can work seamlessly together across borders, as well supporting the establishment of a School of European and Transnational Governance;
Investing in education: by using the European Semester to support structural reforms to improve education policy, using EU funding and EU investment instruments to fund education and setting a benchmark for Member States to invest 5% of GDP in education;
Strengthening the European dimension of Euronews, which was created in 1993 by a number of European public broadcasters, with the ambition of having a European channel offering access to independent, high quality information with a pan-European perspective.

Task Force on 'doing less more efficiently'

Following the announcement in his State of the Union address on 13 September, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has established today the Task Force on Subsidiarity, Proportionality and "Doing Less More Efficiently".

The Task Force will report to the President by 15 July 2018, making recommendations on how to better apply the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality, identifying policy areas where work could be re-delegated or definitely returned to Member States, as well as ways to better involve regional and local authorities in EU policy making and delivery.

The Task Force will start its work on 1 January 2018, and it will be chaired by Frans Timmermans, Commission First Vice-President in charge of Better Regulation, Interinstitutional Relations, the Rule of Law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights. It will be composed of 9 additional members, with 3 members from national Parliaments, 3 from the European Parliament and 3 from the Committee of the Regions.

Other issues

The College discussed the Autumn European Economic Forecast presented on 9 November and welcomed the move by 23 Member States towards launching a Permanent Structured Cooperation on defence.

Towards a European Education Area by 2025

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