The Council updates its education strategy, reinforcing core goals while adding new priorities like digital skills, citizenship and VET.
On 29 June, the EPSCO (Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs) formation of the Council of the EU adopted the long-awaited resolution on the second cycle of the strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training. After repeated deadlocks at previous EYCS Council meetings due to the Hungarian government’s veto, this adoption marked an important and final milestone for the Cypriot presidency on its last day in office. The new resolution updates the Council’s 2021-2030 strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training towards the European Education Area (EEA) and beyond. It sets out the governance model, strategic priorities, and related targets for the EEA. The EEA serves as the EU’s foundation for voluntary cooperation in education, an area where competence lies exclusively with Member States (MS), and as the political base for Erasmus+. The update reflects geopolitical changes of recent years and draws on insights from the European Commission’s (EC) interim evaluation of the 2021-2030 EEA (see SwissCore article).
Core principles remain largely unchanged for the second cycle. MS will continue to improve their education systems through the open method of coordination (OMC), confirming that the current governance model of voluntary cooperation, steered by the High Level Group on Education and Training, which is made up of high level officials from MS’ ministries of education and the EC, remains appropriate. The OMC promotes convergence through peer learning and voluntary adherence to agreed indicators. While this approach avoids binding EU laws in an area of national competence, it depends heavily on MS’ willingness to implement shared goals nationally. Unsurprisingly, the EC’s evaluation reported mixed progress during the first cycle, with notable delays in improving basic skills. However, the recent inclusion of education and training indicators in the European Semester (the EU’s coordination tool for economic and fiscal policies) signals a trend toward greater accountability. This development responds to the evaluation’s finding that evidence on national reforms remains insufficient.
Furthermore, the Council updated the six strategic priorities for the EEA until 2030: 1) Literacy, mathematics and science for all, 2) Developing digital skills and citizenship education, 3) Making lifelong learning and mobility a reality for all, 4) Enhancing attractiveness, competences and motivation in the education and training profession, 5) Fostering excellent and attractive European vocational education and training (VET), and 6) Promoting competitive European higher education. Compared to the first cycle, there is now a stronger emphasis on basic, digital, and citizenship skills. For the Council, digital education is strongly linked to citizenship skills, as it relates to media literacy and the ability to navigate AI-manipulated environments. In a similar vein, the European Parliament’s CULT committee recently adopted a report demanding stronger support for media literacy and digital learning. The Council also invites the EC to propose a target for citizenship education, which is currently absent. Additionally, VET becomes a distinct priority, although corresponding targets are still pending and may be transposed from the EC’s upcoming VET strategy, still expected in the second half of 2026. Progress will continue to be monitored annually through the Education and Training Monitor (see SwissCore article), which will also introduce a new target for talent attraction, aiming for at least 350’000 non-EU learners at Bachelor, Master, or Doctoral levels by 2030. Furthermore, the Council highlights existing initiatives such as European University Alliances, the ongoing work on a European Degree (label), and the Bologna Process as key drivers for a competitive higher education landscape.
Despite these subtle adjustments, the resolution carries a clear message: the EEA’s strategic framework remains the guiding compass for MS’ cooperation in education, ranking the EC’s Union of Skills initiative as secondary. This tension between MS and the EC also surfaced in the Council’s recent PGA on Erasmus+ (see SwissCore article), where national governments reaffirmed that Erasmus+ should continue to be anchored in the EEA rather than in the Union of Skills, as was proposed by the EC. As the second cycle begins, its success will therefore hinge on MS translating shared ambitions into concrete actions, shaping Europe’s education future by 2030.