1. SPEECH/10/26
Androulla VASSILIOU
Member of the European Commissioner responsible for Education,
Culture, Multilingualism and Youth
Introductory remarks on "Education &
Training for the Europe of 2020"
Education, Youth & Culture Council of Ministers
Brussels, 15 February 2010

2. 2
Let me first thank the Presidency for providing us with the opportunity to exchange
views on the contribution of education and training to the future EU strategy
for growth, social inclusion and sustainable development.
A great number of jobs have been lost during the crisis and new work places will
primarily emerge in areas that need higher skills levels.
In 2020, it is estimated that 35% of all jobs will require high qualifications -
compared to 29% today. This will mean 15 million more jobs with high
qualifications.
In addition, the number of jobs requiring medium-level qualifications will
increase by 4 million (whilst the share will remain stable at 50%). In contrast, the
number and share of jobs needing only basic qualifications will fall.
Knowledge is the key to exiting from the crisis and creating a sustainable social
market economy.
This is why education will have to be a vital part of our strategy, and short-term
measures to deal with rising unemployment will need to be combined with structural
reforms that prepare our societies for the long-term challenges, such as
demographic or climate change and the risk of social exclusion.
The Commission will adopt a Communication on the future EU 2020 strategy in
early March.
As the Commission has already indicated in our consultation paper published last
November, this strategy will rely heavily on knowledge and the key roles of
education, innovation, creativity and research.
As outlined in the Presidency's discussion paper, we will need to combine
excellence with equity.
On the one hand, we will need to deepen the knowledge base of our economies to
compete with the rest of the world.
On the other hand, we will need to enable every citizen to participate in lifelong
learning and have opportunities in the labour market, and to play an active role
in society at large.
Last but not least, we will certainly need higher, more efficient and targeted
investment to achieve these ambitious objectives.
I think that our discussion here today should focus in particular on what we can do
together to implement the effective measures needed to target:
• the more than 6 million young people who leave school early,
• the over 1 million of 15 year olds with poor reading skills, and
• the nearly 80 million adults with only basic skills,
so that they improve their skills, competences and employability.
We have a basis for our cooperation in the Strategic framework on education and
training that EU Ministers adopted in May last year.
But we need to anchor these priorities in the EU's overall strategy for economic and
social development up to 2020.
Delivering sustainable growth and social inclusion requires agreement to an
agenda that places Europe's citizens at the centre.

3. 3
Quality education and training can perfectly play this role.
It should be our aim for the future EU 2020 strategy to provide an opportunity to
capitalise on the potential of education and training to create a more sustainable
economy and society.
I would also suggest, Mr President, that this Council should be as concrete as it can
be in putting forward its ideas. And we can already take account of what we know
from the discussions at the informal meeting of the Heads of State and Government
last week.
I understand that it was envisaged that a very small number of concrete targets – a
figure of five was discussed - would be used to drive forward the process.
And one of these, as suggested by Council President Van Rompuy, would focus on
education and training, specifically on promoting an increase in university studies.
This Council has already agreed last May, as one of the 5 benchmarks within the
strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training, that:
by 2020, the share of 30-34 year olds with tertiary educational attainment
should be at least 40% (the current figure for the EU is 31%). As you know in
the USA & Japan the figure is 40%.
The five priority targets for the strategy as a whole will definitely emerge directly
from our policy dialogue on education. We should seize the opportunity to have one
of our key education objectives highlighted in this way.
The higher education attainment benchmark has the merit of addressing both the
objectives of promoting excellence and of increasing access.
I look forward to hearing your views. For my part, I can pledge that I will put forward
the conclusions of our discussions today in the context of our discussions at the
College of Commissioners as we prepare our Communication for adoption in early
March.