The Council endorses investment in skills as a policy objective for the future Eastern partnership.
On 11 May, the European Union (EU)’s Foreign affairs ministers adopted conclusions on the Eastern Partnership (EaP) policy beyond 2020, reaffirming the policy’s strategic importance and the joint commitments defined so far. These earlier commitments include the conclusions of the European Council of 20 June 2019, which marked the 10th anniversary of the Eastern Partnership, and the joint communication “Eastern Partnership policy beyond 2020: Reinforcing Resilience – an Eastern Partnership that delivers for all” of 18 March 2020. The EaP encompasses the cooperation between the EU and Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. According to the ministers, education is an important means of strengthening human capital and prosperity in the EaP countries. The conclusions also stress the importance of digitisation and the European Green Deal.
On 6 May, leaders of the EU and the Western Balkans underlined in their Zagreb Declaration that education and opportunities for youth shall be crucial elements of the close cooperation to tackle the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The six Western Balkan countries include Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as Kosovo. North Macedonia and Serbia are programme countries of Erasmus+.
On 9 March, the European Commission (EC) and Josep Borrell, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, proposed the basis for a new EU strategy with Africa. The proposal sets out five key areas for cooperation (green transition; digital transformation; sustainable growth and jobs; peace and governance; and migration and mobility). Based on these areas the EC suggests 10 partnering actions. These actions also include specific measures for education, research and innovation e.g.:
- boosting the continent’s digital transformation with digital infrastructure and support for digital entrepreneurship and innovation as well as increasing digital skills and literacy;
- rapidly enhancing learning, knowledge and skills, research and innovation capacities, particularly for women and youth by scaling up EU-Africa academic and scientific cooperation, including technical and vocational education and training, and enhancing skills development (also in association with EU businesses) with a view to creating a knowledge society and economy, by facilitating the mobility of students, teachers, trainers and researchers.
Education and skills foci in the European Union’s international policy, the policy that defines the EU’s relation with non-EU Member States, indicate priority areas for international cooperation within the current and future Erasmus+ programme. The current Erasmus+ has e.g. funded student mobility between Erasmus+ programme countries and the Western Balkans through dedicated funding (see Erasmus+ regional factsheet Western Balkans). For the new programme, the EC proposes to enlarge the scope of the international cooperation, e.g. to introduce international Vocational Education and Training (VET) schemes (see 2018 SwissCore article). In order to prepare, the EC pilots such a scheme with the Western Balkans and Africa in the domain of VET (see SwissCore article on the results of the first pilot). The call for proposals for a second pilot scheme for the Western Balkans opened in April with a deadline on 17 June, but is restricted to Erasmus+ Programme Countries, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Kosovo.