On 12 May 2025, the Education Council adopted two complementary texts charting the way forward for a joint European degree: 

• A resolution on a joint European degree label, setting out the member states’ strategic vision and a roadmap towards the possible introduction in three phases of a joint European degree by 2029  
• An accompanying recommendation on quality assurance and recognition establishing the criteria for awarding a new joint European degree label, which would be granted to joint programmes offered through partnerships between institutions in at least two EU member states. 

The Council resolution adjusted the European Commission’s original proposal (see ACA Newsletter – Education Europe, March 2024), underlying a more cautious approach and postponing the full-fledged roll-out of a European degree by 2029. The Council's recommendation emphasised the importance of agile and internationalised quality assurance processes, as well as the automatic mutual recognition of qualifications across member states. It has particularly underlined the important role of the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG), a reference that has been welcomed by higher education stakeholders such as EUA. 

These developments aligh with the exchange of views held in March 2025 by the European Parliament's Committee on Culture and Education (for more details, see ACA Newsletter – Education Europe, March 2025), where members discussed the future of European Universities Alliances. Several MEPs linked the success of the European Degree to stable and long-term support for these alliances. Manuela Ripa (EPP) underscored the need for equal opportunities and fair recognition in the implementation of the degree, while Marcos Ros Sempere (S&D) framed it as a key tool for developing a unified qualification framework across the EU. Other interventions highlighted the importance of legal clarity, sustainable funding, and linguistic diversity as preconditions for realising the degree’s full potential. 

The next steps leading to the rollout the joint European degree label in 2028, foreseen by the European Commission, include operationalising the joint European degree as a label, and creating guidelines for the award of the label to be used by accreditation/quality assurance agencies, based on the work of a dedicated Policy Lab starting this year. The second phase planned for 2026-2028 will involve monitoring and evaluation of the label roll-out and a feasibility assessment for the joint European degree. 

Two Erasmus+ calls for proposals supporting European Degree exploratory action and Forward-Looking Projects: European Degree Pathway are expected to be published by September this year.  

For more detailed information, read the official Council press release here.