Date of release : 21-02-2005

Policy area : Education, Youth and Culture Education, Youth and Culture

Event : Education, Youth and Culture Council

The Education, Youth and Culture Council of 21 February under the Presidency of Mady Delvaux-Stehres, Minister for Education, addressed the question of the contribution of education to the spring meeting of the European Council on the mid-term review of the Lisbon Strategy. In this context, the Minister made the following statement on the subject of the draft conclusions submitted to the Council : "These draft conclusions are, first of all, a recap of the progress made in the field of the working programme "Education and Training 2010" and then, they identify the areas where it would be desirable for the European Council to provide impetus to lifelong learning based on the Communication of the Commission."

Addressing her colleagues, the Minister added "I know that some of you would like to say something about the draft conclusions, and more generally, about the place of education in the Lisbon Strategy. In fact, the Communication of the Commission adopts an approach that is not necessarily the one that we, Ministers for Education, would have chosen. On the one hand, because the role of education is not limited to the training employees or CEOs, but it should train citizens and, on the other hand, because education begins in early childhood and even if certain problems linked to the competitiveness of the European Union require that more attention be paid primarily to higher education, the other levels still should not be neglected."

The Ministers reaffirmed the issue at their meeting that lifelong learning is and remains an essential condition for achieving the Lisbon goals. In this context, the implementation of the "Education and Training 2010" programme is essential for allowing knowledge and education to be developed and to create and better jobs.

It will therefore be necessary to place priority on implementing coherent and complete lifelong learning strategies in the Member States by 2006. These strategies should include all levels and aspects of education in order to develop the expertise and the competence necessary in involving all the actors and in insisting on the promotion of excellence at all levels of the systems of education and training.