Brussel, 08 February 2024

ECSWE contributes to the Lifelong Learning Stakeholders’ Forum

The Forum of 27 November 2023 in Brussels was jointly organised by the European Commission and the Lifelong Learning Platform with the purpose of reviewing the European Education Area.

The European Commission listens to civil society

Over a hun­dred par­tic­i­pants from Euro­pean-lev­el civ­il soci­ety organ­i­sa­tions gath­ered with­in the Life­long Learn­ing Plat­form engaged in a day of dis­cus­sions on the suc­cess­es and chal­lenges of the Euro­pean Edu­ca­tion Area (EEA) in the light of its 2023 mid-term review. The suc­cess of poli­cies and action plans with­in the EEA relies on the coop­er­a­tion between the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion and edu­ca­tion providers, broad­ly rep­re­sent­ed in the Plat­form. For this rea­son, the dis­cus­sions were close­ly fol­lowed by the Euro­pean Commission’s staff report­ing back to their Direc­torate Gen­er­al for Edu­ca­tion, Youth, Sport and Culture.

ECSWE gives contribution on behalf of Steiner Waldorf schools

The Euro­pean Coun­cil for Stein­er Wal­dorf Edu­ca­tion (ECSWE) active­ly con­tributed its per­spec­tives dur­ing dis­cus­sions on school edu­ca­tion, empha­sis­ing the impor­tance of pub­lic fund­ing arrange­ments for inde­pen­dent schools, advo­cat­ing for cur­ric­u­lar flex­i­bil­i­ty, sup­port­ing teacher auton­o­my, and stress­ing the need for age-appro­pri­ate media edu­ca­tion. Based on these and sim­i­lar inputs, the forum result­ed in a set of rec­om­men­da­tions cov­er­ing invest­ment in edu­ca­tion, gov­er­nance, pol­i­cy coher­ence, pol­i­cy mon­i­tor­ing, and equi­ty with­in the EEA. These will help the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion fur­ther devel­op its edu­ca­tion strategy.

The EEA mid-term review closes with the European Education Summit

On 30 Novem­ber 2023 in Brus­sels, the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion host­ed the sixth Euro­pean Edu­ca­tion Sum­mit, with the aim to engage high-lev­el pol­i­cy mak­ers in an open dia­logue with Euro­pean-lev­el edu­ca­tion stake­hold­ers. Top­ics high­light­ed at the event were efforts towards more inclu­sive edu­ca­tion that answers devel­op­men­tal needs for all learn­ers, poli­cies sur­round­ing qual­i­ty invest­ment in edu­ca­tion in all EU mem­ber states, and edu­ca­tion­al approach­es answer­ing con­tem­po­rary soci­etal chal­lenges, such as envi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­i­ty and dig­i­tal­i­sa­tion. At the event, ECSWE was rep­re­sent­ed by the man­ag­ing direc­tor Georg Jür­gens and advo­ca­cy coor­di­na­tor Dora Šimunović.

Further reading