EU Policy Areas

Education

Education is a primary concern of all Member State governments, but the structures of education systems differ considerably, both within and between countries. The European Union does not have a 'common education policy', and each Member State remains responsible for the content and organisation of its education and training systems. The mission of the European Commission regarding education is to build a Europe of knowledge through developing a European area of lifelong learning that will be a benchmark for the world by 2010 and that will help to make the European Union the most competitive and dynamic knowledge economy in the world, capable of sustained economic growth accompanied by more and better jobs and greater social cohesion.

The EU provides:

• Multinational education, training and youth partnerships
• Exchange schemes and opportunities to learn abroad
• Innovative teaching and learning project
• Networks of academic and professional expertise
• A framework to address across-the-board issues, such as new technologies in education and the international recognition of qualifications
• A platform for consensus, comparisons, benchmarking and policy making

There are a number of EU funding programmes for education, training and youth that local authorities and higher education institutions can get involved with although many of these come to an end in 2006.

The Commission has issued a publication outlining its priorities in education, training and youth for the forthcoming period 2007-2013. The main innovations included within this predicted programme are:

• A new Integrated Programme for mobility and cooperation in lifelong learning for the EU Member States covering education and training
• A new Tempus Plus programme for cooperation between Member States and countries bordering the Union and the existing Tempus countries, covering the whole spectrum of education and training