Introduction to day and overview of key EU issues

1. Introduction to day and overview of key EU issues Richard Tuffs West Midlands in Europe

2. Today’s agenda • Modernisation of HE • European Qualifications Framework • Europe Institute of Technology • Erasmus • UK position

3. Presentation outline • EU challenges • Lisbon • Social Reality • Commission Work Programme • EU budget • Recent Commission Communication on 2010

4. EU challenges • Globalisation and adapting to change • Competitiveness • Lisbon Strategy Review in 2008 • New 3-year rolling programme • Cohesion Policy Review in 2008 • Future Cohesion Policy post 2013… • Research and innovation • European Research Area • Lead markets / procurement – innovation /sustainability • Climate change • Social dimension • Social Reality Report 2007 • Demographic pressures • Ageing • Migration • Skills linked to declining social mobility • EU Budget Review 2008/9 for post 2013…

5. Lisbon – Commission's Annual Progress Report Jan 2006 • Four priority actions to be implemented before the end of 2007 • Investing more in knowledge and innovation • Unlocking the business potential, particularly of SMEs • Getting people into work • Moving towards an efficient and integrated EU energy policy

6. Investing more in knowledge and innovation • Stronger commitment to R&D and innovation • Public expenditure • State aid for innovation • Structural funds • Step up investment in higher education (1.28% of GDP compared to 3.25% in the USA. Note EU target 2% by 2010) • Universities to seek complementary private sources of funding • Remove legal barriers to private/public partnerships • European Institute of Technology • Compulsory teaching of two foreign languages in schools

7. Social Reality Report - trends… • Growing cultural gap between the cosmopolitans and those left behind by economic change and industrial restructuring • Now more French living in UK than British in France (excluding second home owners) • Is there a European social model now under attack by globalisation? • Social change mainly internally driven but globalisation means margins for change are limited by globalisation

8. Transition to post-industrial knowledge society 1 • In 2005 in EU15 – 40% employed in knowledge based sectors • Sweden 54%, UK 50% - Portugal 26% • Job growth in in EU15 in last 10 years of 23% in knowledge based sectors compared to rest of economy 6% • 50% of existing jobs demand high level cognitive/personal skills • New types of service jobs • Position of unskilled men worsening

9. Transition to post-industrial knowledge society 2 • Mobile capital linked to information technology opens up global supply chains • Focus on short-term profit • Cities now key to knowledge economies • Creative classes • Increasing intra-regional disparities

10. Succeeding in the age of globalisation • Com(2007)581final • Reshaping Europe by • Getting the most out of the Internal Market • Responding to Europe’s new social realities • Migration in a globalising Europe • Sustainable energy policies for a low carbon future • Ensuring financial stability • Mobilising the external dimension • World’s largest trader – open markets • Shaping global regulation • Implemented by the Lisbon Strategy

11. Commission Work Programme • Lisbon key vehicle • 2008 Spring Council – opportunity to reshape Lisbon • ‘Developing a knowledge society is a cornerstone of the growth and jobs strategy, and the Commission will continue to look at new ways to promote education, training, research and innovation as part of its Lisbon strategy’ • Single Market Review • Retail financial services • Small Business Act • Cyprus and Malta join the euro in 2008

12. Education 2008 • Communication on Multilingualism • Promoting multilingualism via Open Method of Coordination to improve employability and competitiveness • Green Paper on Migration and Education • Central role of education in integration

13. The EU Budget

14. Changing budget structures

15. New Communication • Delivering lifelong learning for knowledge, creativity and innovation COM 2007/703 • Draft 2008 joint progress report of the Council and the Commission on the implementation of the “Education & Training 2010 work programme”

16. Challenges • Raising skill levels • Continued high levels of early school leaving, low participation in lifelong learning by older workers and the low-skilled, and poor skill achievement among migrants cause concern in most countries. Further, future labour markets in a knowledge-based economy will demand ever higher skill levels from a shrinking work force. • Lifelong learning strategies • The knowledge triangle (education, research and innovation) • The knowledge triangle plays a key role in boosting jobs and growth. So it is so important to accelerate reform, to promote excellence in higher education and university-business partnerships…

17. Progress • Lifelong learning and qualification systems • Pre-primary education • HE – a clear place in the Lisbon agenda • Education and training – entering the EU landscape • Teacher education • Schools for 21st century • Adult learning • Multilingualism - consultation • E-skills

18. Problems • Implementation of lifelong learning • Basic skills • Early school leavers • Teacher education • Higher education – excellence, partnership and funding • Adult participation in learning • Attractiveness of VET • Transnational mobility

19. Post-2010 • Major challenges persist, new challenges have emerged • Cooperation in the framework of the Bologna and Copenhagen processes, needs to be continued and indeed reinforced well beyond 2010. • Reflections on the main priorities of the work programme beyond 2010 should therefore start now and be closely associated with the future development of the Lisbon process