The Finnish presidency will advance the Erasmus+ negotiations. Other priorities are continuous learning and investment in human capital.
Finland will take over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union from Romania on 1 July. The Finnish presidency will be the first to work with the newly elected European Parliament (EP), the new European Commission (EC) and – expectedly – with more clarity on Brexit. The new EP is currently organising itself and will have its inaugural plenary session on 2 July. A new president of the EC and the new European Commissioners are expected to enter into office at the beginning of November, after being appointed by the European Council and confirmed by the EP. Brexit is scheduled for the end of October at the latest.
One of the biggest priorities of the Finnish presidency is to advance the Erasmus+ negotiations as much as possible. This means that Finland will seek to reach a compromise between Council and the (new) European Parliament on the Erasmus+ regulation during the trilogue negotiations. For the finalisation of the file, they however depend on the advancements regarding the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for budget clarifications and on decisions regarding the association article in the legal text.
Besides advancing the Erasmus+ negotiations, Finland has a number of other priorities. One is continuous learning, and the aim is to agree on Council conclusions on this topic during the autumn Council meeting of the education ministers (8 November). Another is equity, equality and effectiveness in education.
The second half of 2019 will see new meeting configurations. The aim is to foster exchange between different groups of policy makers. One the one hand, attention will be paid to the enhancing cooperation between education and research, amongst others through a joint conference of the Directors General for Higher Education (DG HE) and the European Research Area and Innovation Committee (ERAC) on 1 October. On the other hand, EU Education Ministers will hold a special joint policy debate on the importance of human capital together with their counterparts from the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) on 8 November.
Discussions on the future of the European Education Area shall continue, amongst others in view of a Resolution on the future of the European Education Area. An informal ministerial dinner will take place on 7 November to discuss the European Universities initiative.
More information on the programme of the Finnish Presidency, as well as the list of events, can be found on the presidency website.
The Finnish presidency is the second of the current trio and will be followed by the Croatian presidency on 1 January 2020.