A European education area by 2025

SUMMARY OF:

Communication (COM(2017) 673 final) – Strengthening European identity through education and culture

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE COMMUNICATION?

The European Commission contributed ideas to the European Union (EU) leaders’ meeting at the Social Summit in November 2017 in Gothenburg, to stimulate discussion on the future of education and culture. As part of the ongoing debate on the future of Europe, the Commission sets out its vision of a European education area by 2025, building on initiatives such as:

It is in the interest of all EU Member States to make use of the full potential of education and culture to drive job creation, social fairness, active citizenship and economic growth and as a means to experience European identity in all its diversity.

KEY POINTS

The Commission calls for an ambitious European agenda on education and culture to address:

challenges facing the EU, such as:
- digitalisation;
- increasing inequalities;
- an ageing workforce;
the need to enhance:
- skills and competences; and
- critical thinking and media literacy, in particular to address ‘fake’ news and counter populism and xenophobia.

It proposes to work jointly with the Member States towards a European education area based on trust, mutual recognition, cooperation and the sharing of best practices, mobility and growth.

The European education area – three main strands

Boosting mobility across borders.
Investing in people and their education.
Strengthening people’s sense of European identity and awareness of cultural heritage.

Essential features

The proposed steps towards a European education area include the following:

making mobility a reality for all by expanding participation in the Erasmus+ programme and the European Solidarity Corps and creating an EU Student Card to allow a new user-friendly way of storing academic records;
initiating a new process, building on the Bologna process, to prepare the ground for the mutual recognition of higher education and school diplomas;
greater cooperation on curricula development to ensure that education systems impart the knowledge and skills that are essential in today’s world;
improving language learning by aiming to ensure that by 2025 all young Europeans finishing secondary education have a good knowledge of two languages besides their native one;
promoting lifelong learning and raising the share of people engaging in lifelong learning to 25% by 2025;
mainstreaming innovation and digital skills in education by promoting innovative and digital training and preparing a new digital education action plan;
supporting teachers by allowing more teachers to participate in the Erasmus+ programme and the eTwinning platform and offering policy guidance on their professional development;
creating a network to enable world-class European universities to work together across borders and establishing a school of European and transnational governance;
investing in education by using the European semester to support structural reforms to improve education policy through EU funding instruments and setting a benchmark for investment in education to 5% of GDP;
preserving cultural heritage and fostering a sense of European identity and culture by developing a new European agenda for culture using the momentum of the 2018 European Year of Cultural Heritage and preparing a Council of the European Union recommendation on common values, inclusive education and the European dimension of teaching;
strengthening the European dimension of Euronews in order to have a news channel offering independent, high-quality information with a European-wide perspective.

2020 communication

A Commission communication, issued during the COVID-19 pandemic, builds on the 2017 communication and sets out its vision on further developing the European education area, linking it with NextGenerationEU and the multiannual financial framework for 2021–2027. It focuses on six aspects:

raising quality in education;
making education and training more inclusive and gender-sensitive;
supporting the green and digital transitions;
enhancing competence and motivation in the education profession;
strengthening higher-education institutions; and
education as part of a stronger Europe in the world.

BACKGROUND

For further information, see:

The European Commission’s contribution to the Leaders’ meeting in Gothenburg, 17 November 2017 – Factsheets (European Commission)
European education area (European Commission)
Education and training monitor (European Commission).

MAIN DOCUMENT

Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions – Strengthening European Identity through Education and Culture – The European Commission’s contribution to the Leaders’ meeting in Gothenburg, 17 November 2017 (COM(2017) 673 final, 14.11.2017).