[Publication] Approaches of the Council and the Commission to the European Education Area: strategic priorities and quantitative objectives

In May 2009, the Council had adopted a strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training (‘ET 2020’) in which it established a list of benchmarks that would allow for monitoring the progress achieved across Europe in education and training (Council of the European Union, 2009).

In 2020, mainly in its communication on achieving on achieving the European Education Area by 2025 but also in the European skills agenda for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilience, the Commission took stock of the performance of the past decade and suggested amending these benchmarks with a view to better address the major challenges of our times (European Commission, 2020a and b). Most notably, it proposed a new indicator on low achievement in computer and information literacy.

In its resolution of February 2021, the Council advocated slightly lower levels of ambition for the different benchmarks and added an indicator on “Exposure of VET graduates to work based learning”.