A meeting of the High Level Group on Education and Training Policy, held in Athens on 12 - 13 December 2013, signaled the commencement of the Greek Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first semester of 2014 for the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs (Y.PAI.TH.). The Ministry of Education chaired the meeting, which was attended by representatives of the European Commission, the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union, and senior representatives from the Ministries of Education of Member States. The Secretary-General of the Y.PAI.TH., Professor Athanasios Kyriazis, officially opened the meeting. 

 

The main issues on the agenda were discussed in the light of high youth unemployment rates across Europe and the importance of education and training in promptly tackling the problem. In particular, discussions focused on:

• the preparation of the Education and Training (ET) 2020 Mid-Term Stocktaking and the 2015 Joint Report 

• the development of six thematic working groups of experts who will run the axes of education and training 

• the analysis and development of a European approach to the surveys of ΕΤ Monitor, PIAAC and PISA

• the 2014 Annual Growth Survey 

• the necessity of more funding for Operational Programmes in Education and Training, in which framework, Special Secretary for European Funds, Evangelos Zacharakis, presented the Operational Programme of Lifelong Learning

• the priorities of the Ministry of Education, which correspond to the axes of social cohesion, effective and innovative education and training, quality assurance and higher education.

 

The unanimously acknowledged success of the meeting highlighted the constructive approach of Member States towards European cooperation on key issues such as quality assurance, supply of skills matching labour market demands, the increasingly wider educational inequalities among the most vulnerable social groups, the need for increased efficiency in the funding of education and training due to budgetary cutbacks, as well as the open learning systems (MOOCs).