The European Union Education, Culture and Youth Council met in Brussels on 14-15 February. The main education-related outcomes of the meeting were the following:

• Adoption of the 2008 joint progress report on the Education and Training 2010 work programme entitled "Delivering lifelong learning for knowledge, creativity and innovation", which underlined the lack of progress in five key benchmarks in the area of education, such as early school leavers and literacy levels. See also ACA Newsletter –Education Europe November 2007.

• Adoption of education-related key messages to be submitted to the spring meeting of the European Council. These emphasize the central role of education in the implementation of the Lisbon strategy, namely for promoting creativity and innovation and making of transnational mobility common practice in higher education. Strong appeal was made on speeding up implementation of lifelong learning strategies.

• Adoption of a recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the    establishment of a European qualifications framework for lifelong learning. The aim of the recommendation is to provide a common language to describe qualifications in order to increase transparency and comparability, and facilitate the recognition of different qualifications acquired under the various EU education and training systems.

Furthermore, the Council decided to designate 2009 as the European year of creativity and innovation. The aim of the year will be to promote these two competences as key for the personal fulfillment and well-being of all individuals in society. Council of the European Union, Conclusions of the meeting