In late December, the European Commission released the draft Joint Report of the Council and the Commission, titled “Education and training in a smart, sustainable and inclusive Europe”, which is to be adopted under the Danish presidency in 2012. The document reports on the implementation progress achieved during the first operational stage (2009-2011) of the Strategic Framework for European cooperation in education and training (“ET2020”). Additionally, the draft report outlines priority areas for European policy cooperation for the next cycle, which runs from 2012 to 2014. In this respect, it underlines those areas and measures that can contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the “Europe 2020” strategy, namely: 

• ensuring smart investment in education and training together with policy reforms improving the quality of outcomes; 
• focusing on reaching the Europe 2020 headline targets on early school leaving and tertiary education; 
• enhancing lifelong learning; 
• boosting transnational mobility to enable individuals to acquire new skills and thus strengthen their future employability and personal development; and 
• promoting key competences for all citizens, close cooperation between education and the labour market, and improved monitoring of required skills based on the Europe 2020 flagship initiative “Agenda for new skills and jobs”.

The Commission Communication on the draft 2012 Joint Report is accompanied by two staff working documents, with thematic and country-specific components. First, there is an overview of the work accomplished at European and national levels, combined with an in-depth cross-country analysis of the progress achieved in a number of key policy areas.  Meanwhile, a set of country briefs summarising the main developments in individual countries in the period 2009-2011 provides a country-by-country picture.

European Commission