European Trade Union Committee for Education
ETUCE
ETUCE represents 11 million teachers and education workers across Europe, advocating for their interests in EU policy on education and labor markets.
Lobbying Activity
Meeting with Bogdan Andrzej Zdrojewski (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur) and Deutsche Industrie- und Handelskammer and
28 Jan 2026 · Stakeholder dialogue on establishing the Erasmus+ programme for the period 2028-2034
Meeting with Vanessa Debiais-Sainton (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Roxana Mînzatu)
24 Nov 2025 · Importance of teachers’ voices in policy making
ETUCE warns against digital deregulation in European education
14 Oct 2025
Message — ETUCE opposes the digital omnibus proposal, warning it will lead to harmful deregulation. They demand that the AI Act be defended, especially regarding high-risk systems in education. The union urges the Commission to protect public education from commercial encroachment.123
Why — Preserving these regulations prevents large corporations from bypassing rules that protect teachers' professional autonomy.45
Impact — Large platforms lose the opportunity to reduce regulatory constraints on their commercial activities.6
Meeting with Hadja Lahbib (Commissioner) and
9 Oct 2025 · The transposition of the Pay Transparency Directive, The Roadmap for Women’s Rights and The upcoming Gender Equality Strategy
Meeting with Gyula Cserey (Head of Unit Education, Youth, Sport and Culture), Szilvia Kalman (Acting Head of Unit Education, Youth, Sport and Culture)
4 Sept 2025 · Exchange of views on the evaluation report of the European Education Area
Response to European Research Area (ERA) Act
2 Sept 2025
ETUCE, representing researchers and academics trade unions across Europe, welcomes the plan to put the ERA objectives into EU law. The ERA should make the free movement of researchers, knowledge and technology real, and it should keep researchers safe. The Act shall protect research as a public good. Policy must serve the public interest, support democratic governance, and ensure fair working conditions for future and present researchers and academics. Public investment needs to be reliable and long term. The European Semester shall push Member States towards the 3% R&D target, with transparent decision making with relevant stakeholders, including the trade unions, and open reporting. Funding must also protect and promote independent and curiosity-driven research within all scientific disciplines. Long-term institutional funding should be shielded from short-term political and commercial pressure. We support a more ambitious benchmark for funding and call for at least 4% of GDP for publicly and private funded research. Research may support innovation and the labour market, but it must not be led by narrowly defined market needs. Better coordination between the EU and the Member States can reduce fragmentation only if there are safeguards. The Act should link EU research funding to social conditionalities, including respecting academic-freedom, quality job of the staff, trade union rights, and collective agreements. Governance and evaluation should be transparent, with strong regulation on conflicts of interest and on effective social dialogue with trade unions. Access to infrastructures should be fair across regions and disciplines to avoid widening gaps of funding. Fundamental values must be guaranteed in practice. The Act should set out clear protections for academic freedom, ethics and integrity, gender equality and equal opportunities, and provide clear standards. Protections should cover research, teaching, research dissemination, participation in governance and institutional autonomy, and should shield staff from harassment, censorship and interference. Openness should help, not hinder, research: open access to publicly funded results and proportionate, rights-respecting rules for data and AI are essential for trust and collaboration. Research careers must be attractive and secure if Europe wants to keep and attract talents. Open-ended contracts should be the norm for core research and teaching ensuring fair pay, social protection and manageable workload. Assessment and promotion should recognise teaching, supervision, teamwork, open practices and work with society, not only narrow metrics. Early-career and female researchers need targeted support and leadership opportunities. Mobility must come with rights: faster recognition of qualifications, portability of pensions and benefits, and predictable residence and long-stay visa procedures for researchers and their families. Good governance depends on social dialogue. Any EU work on researchers careers must respect national collective bargaining and social dialogue. Researchers and academics trade unions should have a formal role in the ERA Forum, ERAC and the boards of infrastructures and partnerships. Involving unions in the design, implementation and monitoring of research policies and investment having impact on research and academic jobs is the best way to end structural precarity and to build fair, attractive and transparent career paths. In short, the ERA Act should bind Member States to ambitious public investment in independent science; align policies without handing the research agenda to market interests; protect academic freedom and ethics with enforceable rules; provide secure jobs for the staff, fair assessment and mobility with rights; ensure equitable infrastructures across regions and disciplines; and embed social dialogue with the unions that represent Europes researchers.
Read full responseEuropean teachers' union urges AI strategy to prioritize pedagogy
4 Jun 2025
Message — ETUCE demands a needs-based approach where AI serves pedagogical purposes rather than industry interests. They argue that AI must not increase teacher workloads and call for funding of non-profit European EdTech.123
Why — This would protect educators from burnout and ensure technology complements rather than replaces them.4
Impact — Private tech companies would lose influence as the strategy shifts away from market-driven agendas.5
European teachers' union urges AI strategy to protect academic freedom
30 May 2025
Message — ETUCE demands a bottom-up approach to AI in science that safeguards academic freedom and institutional autonomy. They call for education trade unions to be involved in the governance of the proposed AI research council. Furthermore, they oppose any weakening of current data protection laws or ethical safeguards to promote innovation.123
Why — Implementing these recommendations would protect researchers from increased workloads while ensuring their intellectual property and employment rights are respected.45
Response to European strategy on research and technology infrastructures
12 May 2025
The Commission's renewed initiative to develop a long-term strategy for the ERA is an important opportunity for Europe to enhance its research and technology infrastructures. The strategy must ensure that policies align with the values of public interest, democratic governance, and fairness in working conditions for researchers. ETUCE stresses the importance of a research policy that empowers researchers and ensures inclusive, sustainable growth for the European research sector. We emphasize that research and technology infrastructures cannot be effectively built or operated without ensuring that researchers have the necessary support to thrive. Research is fundamentally about people and ideas, not just buildings or laboratories. Europe must prioritize long-term public funding to ensure research independence and accessibility, especially in fields serving the public and social interests. In addition to the challenges identified by the Commission, we think researchers need comprehensive career development programs, permanent work contracts, and improved working conditions. The ERA must address the precarity, insufficient salaries, and a lack of career pathways faced by many researchers, especially early-career and female researchers. These conditions threaten the attractiveness of the research profession and undermine the sustainability and inclusiveness of the ERA. Gender equality and diversity must be prioritized in research careers and leadership roles. Equitable access to research infrastructures across Europe is also an issue. While initiatives like Horizon Europe aim to foster cross-border collaboration, disparities between regions may widen. Funding must be distributed equitably to ensure that all EU regions and all scientific disciplines can meaningfully participate in the ERA. As digitalization and artificial intelligence shape the research landscape, research infrastructures must be sustainable, with ethical standards for AI, respect of copyrights, and data privacy. Open access policies should ensure that infrastructures are accessible to all researchers. ETUCE supports the proposed actions to enhance cross-border collaboration and improve access to infrastructures. However, additional measures are needed, such as binding public investment targets. We call on Member States to allocate at least 4% of GDP to publicly funded research, and focus on basic and interdisciplinary research in areas such as Social Sciences, Humanities and the Arts which are vulnerable to market pressures. We are against the commodification of research and research driven by narrowly defined short-term market-driven outcomes. The ERA should be governed by democratic principles, with respect for trade union rights, collective bargaining, and institutional autonomy. Governance models for infrastructures should be transparent and inclusive, with clear roles for researchers and their unions in decision-making. ETUCE insists that researchers unions be recognized as social partners in all decision-making bodies related to research and innovation. The Commission should leverage social dialogue to integrate researchers voices into policy processes. The success of the ERA depends not only on technological investments but also on the well-being, empowerment, and engagement of Europes research workforce. Social dialogue should ensure that research policies reflect the scientific questions of researchers. A fair representation of all researchers should be ensured in the policy-making process to guarantee that policies remain responsive to the needs of ongoing scientific work. The ERA must focus on fairness, inclusivity, and equitable access, ensuring that all regions can contribute to Europes research efforts. Above all, academic freedom, the public interest, and ethical governance should remain foundational principles in all research policies.
Read full responseMeeting with Monika Kepe-Holmberg (Head of Unit Education, Youth, Sport and Culture)
20 Jan 2025 · Introductory meeting, topics of discussion: - EU education strategies - European Teachers Agenda
Meeting with Roxana Mînzatu (Executive Vice-President) and
14 Jan 2025 · Exchange of views on the social justice and quality jobs crisis Europe is facing Necessary initiatives to deliver quality jobs Improved working and living conditions in the European Union
Response to European Quality Assurance and Recognition System
15 Jan 2024
ETUCE, which represents 127 education trade unions in 51 countries, a total of 11 million members all over Europe including the higher education and research staff requests that the initiative needs to respect the national competence on higher education and quality assurance systems, and academic freedom and institutional autonomy as fundamental values. The European Commission (COM) should clarify if the initiative is aimed for the joint programmes of the European University Alliances projects only or for any joint programs set up outside of these projects. ETUCE is concerned about the impact of setting up joint accreditation and quality assurance (QA) procedures for the joint programmes as these can have a negative impact on the institutional autonomy and national competence on education, and they can weaken the governance of QA systems. The definition of quality is fundamental as each higher education institution (HEI) establishes its quality standards, involving academics in the process. As highlighted in the call for evidence for this initiative, the lack of trust in QA processes among HEIs is an obstacle to transnational cooperation for joint degree programmes. The measure to overcome barriers and promote transparency and recognition of qualifications is effective social dialogue. To this end, a transparent and collegial evaluation should be ensured. the initiatives should recommend to the MSs to shift the approach of quantitative assessment of publication of the academics towards more qualitative assessment of teaching and research, following effective social dialogue with the education trade unions. The exchange between national authorities and stakeholders should be catalysed on effective approaches to implement QA policies, agreed within the Bologna Process, on aligning the legal framework with the ESG in their national/local systems. It is important to note that there are different kinds of accreditation and QA systems in practice currently. Public and mandatory requirements differ in the MSs of the EU. The initiative should fully respect the responsibility of the MSs for the organisation of education systems. The joint university programmes should also respect the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG). We remind that the ESG defines that HEIs should apply fair and transparent processes for the recruitment and development of the staff, and the role of stakeholders in involvement of decision making on QA procedures. QA and conditions of accreditation should link to ensuring decent salary, fair working conditions and permanent contracts to the higher education staff. QA is still tied may times to defining budget of a HEI and performance-based funding, which usually contribute to further privatisation and commercialisation of HE, and to precarity of academics in the sector resulting in staff leaving academia. The content of the curricula and funding of HEIs should not be decided by the graduates performance in the labour market. ETUCE is concerned about the shift towards multi-institutional external quality assurance for joint programmes created of European Universities Alliances projects as different national laws should also be respected. We request that alternative providers awarding ECTS points for micro-credentials at the higher education level undergo a strict review. The EU initiative needs to respect democratic governance and social dialogue with the trade unions of academics to mitigate potential negative impact on the staff. It is essential to involve the education trade unions in designing quality assurance systems. Academic freedom and supportive working conditions to academics should be a quality criteria of the initiative and education trade unions should be involved in defining, monitoring, and implementing the quality assurance and recognition systems.
Read full responseResponse to Joint European degree
15 Jan 2024
ETUCE, which represents 127 education trade unions in 51 countries, a total of 11 million members all over Europe including the higher education and research staff, reminds that the initiative needs to respect national competence on higher education, academic freedom, and the institutional autonomy of universities, as the creation of joint European Degree will have an impact on national degrees and university programmes. The European Commission (COM) needs to clarify if the label would be recommended only to the joint programmes of the European University Alliance projects or to any joint programmes. The MSs, with the involvement of the HEIs and academics, should initiate bilateral and multilateral agreements to facilitate the administrative and legislative backgrounds of setting up joint degrees. In order to support that the joint programmes of European universities receive the label of European Degree, national quality assurance procedures need to be respected and revised together with education trade unions and relevant stakeholders. Joint accreditation and quality assurance procedures of the joint European Degree raise our concerns that the initiative could have a negative impact on institutional autonomy, academic freedom, and the attractiveness of academic careers in HE. The common set of criteria to set joint European degrees should be established together with academics in order to ensure their credibility and trust. We are concerned that the European University Alliance projects, while sharing teachers, staff and researchers and using common and shared infrastructures, equipment, and facilities in addition to issuing joint European degrees, will harmonise HE in the long run, negatively affecting institutional autonomy, local institutional culture and traditions. The EU needs different kinds of HE systems and different kinds of HE institutions that can adapt to different needs. Without such diversity, the Unions HE systems, universities and university graduates will not be internationally competitive. We are concerned that more joint programmes would motivate HEIs to share the workplace and working hours of academics, which will force them to work on temporary and short-term contracts, increasing precariousness in the sector and affecting the working conditions and health and safety of the staff, with detrimental impact on quality of teaching and research. The initiative therefore needs to respect democratic governance and social dialogue with the trade unions of academics to mitigate potential negative impact on the staff. The concept behind joint European Degrees is to strengthen automatic recognition, student-centred learning, mobility, internationalisation, quality assurance, which are common goals of the Bologna Process. The common fundamental values and the aims of the Bologna Process, like academic freedom, need to be respected. By asking only the universities within the European University Alliances projects to ensure these aims by establishing the European Degrees, the COM is creating a divide among universities who are members of the alliances and those which are not. The initiatives objective of raising the international profile of HE institutions and of facilitating transnational cooperation should not overshadow the urgent need to invest into fair recruitment and retention of high qualify staff to the sector. The initiative can reach its goals if it also considers the well-being of academics, their working conditions, permanent contractual status, and decent salary which are crucial to ensuring quality teaching and research. Academic freedom and supportive working conditions to academics should be a quality criteria of the initiative and education trade unions should be involved.
Read full responseResponse to Attractive and sustainable careers in higher education
12 Jan 2024
ETUCE, representing 127 education trade unions in 51 countries, a total of 11 million members all over Europe including the higher education and research staff, welcomes to make attractive careers for HE staff. Attractive career and working conditions for academics are key for #MakingTeachingAttractive, which is ETUCEs ongoing campaign. Academics across Europe face decreasing job security due to budget constraints, reduced employment opportunities, and increasing precarity. Academics play a vital role for quality education and research in universities and their decent working conditions and fair salary should be addressed by the initiative. OECD also underlined that precarious employment makes it harder for academics to guarantee high quality teaching and research. The COVID-19 crisis and its impact had led to a deterioration of the mental health, well-being and working conditions, with increased workloads and job losses for fixed-term and casualised staff, especially of certain groups of staff such as women and staff from socio-economically disadvantaged groups. Now, the green and digital transition requires intuitional changes which have major impacts on the everyday work of the staff, their contracts, working conditions and salary. We request that the initiative sets up an attractive career framework as a guidance to MSs to recognise the value of the academic teaching profession and the needs of the staff. The EU initiative should pay particular attention to recommend the MSs to ensure social dialogue and permanent contracts to all academic staff, as flexible career pathways cannot mean more precarious and project-based contracts, that decreases quality jobs in HE. The career framework should be set up by respecting the 1997 UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel. The initiative should consider and support already existing national and institutional career frameworks defined by social dialogue with the trade unions of academics. The EU initiative should acknowledge the equal value of teaching and research. ETUCE strongly recommends one single EU recommendation on career framework for higher education and research. It should ensure equal access to academic positions and fair career progressions for female academics and staff from other countries and different socio-economic groups. For this, Annex on Social Dimension of the Rome Ministerial Communique should be taken into consideration. Quality HE should not be considered as a commodity. The initiative should acknowledge the career crisis of academia in relation to the cost of living and tackle low pay remuneration, gender imbalance, workload pressures, lack of autonomy linked to low academic freedom, short-term contracts and brain drain. It should give a strong message to MSs to enhance social dialogue with the trade unions of academics and collective bargaining, and recommend sustainable public investment to HE and fair and transparent career development of academics. To reduce the dropout from academic career, young academics should have more support to stay in the profession. We ask that the new initiative provides strong recommendations to ensure sustainable public investment to HE and to set up indicators and benchmarks to support academics career. The COM should have a strong monitoring of the implementation of the initiative, with the involvement of teachers trade unions, and based on independent research on academics career. Trade union involvement and social dialogue in every aspect of governance is fundamental. The uneven recognition of different roles played by academic and research staff, rigid career paths, lack of career development support, unsatisfactory working conditions should be addressed. The mobility of staff should be recognised as it should not contribute to precariousness. The initiative should also address the intellectual property rights, including teaching materials.
Read full responseResponse to Virtual worlds, such as metaverse
3 May 2023
The European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE) representing 127 Education Trade Unions and more than 11 million teachers and education personnel in 51 countries across Europe, welcomes the Commissions objectives of empowering people in the virtual world and promoting culture diversity, equality, and non-discrimination. According to education trade unions, protecting these values is an essential precondition to adequately harness the potential of Metaverse in the education sector. In this context, ETUCE believes this initiative should encourage the development of a clear definition of Metaverse in line with the fundamental values enshrined within the EU Pillar of Social Rights and the EU Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles. The upcoming initiative should further prepare the basis for ambitious regulatory frameworks in complementarity with other EU frameworks. The definitory effort should happen in meaningful social dialogue with education trade unions. Concerning the education sector, the upcoming initiative should recognise that Metaverse in education is a rapidly developing area requiring careful attention. While Metaverse comes with the promise of favouring teaching and learning, numerous challenges associated with the use of Metaverse in education need to be tackled, both from a pedagogical and industrial relation perspective. Given the nature of education as a human right and a public good, the Commission must call for specific initiatives and meaningful social dialogue with education trade unions to understand the impact of Metaverse in the education sector. Therefore, ETUCE demands that the upcoming initiative call for the set-up of an EU task group to understand the opportunities and challenges of the Metaverse in the education sector. The initiative must include education trade unions and should feed into the framework of the Open Method of Coordination. Furthermore, ETUCE emphasises the importance of conducting research on the impact of Metaverse on the teaching profession. From a pedagogical perspective, in the digital worlds, the role of teachers becomes even more crucial in supporting students navigate the vast sea of information in the metaverse and becoming aware of the opportunities and risks of the digital worlds. From the perspective of the pedagogical role of teachers, the upcoming initiative should envisage overarching research to investigate the way Metaverse impact the working conditions of teachers and their pedagogical thinking. In this context, it is important to look at good implementation practices of Metaverse that value the role of teachers at the core of the learning process, without reducing them to mere supervisors of virtual spaces. In this context, the upcoming initiative must foresee meaningful social dialogue activities within the implementation of the Digital Education Action Plan to identify the impact of Metaverse on the working conditions and professional role of teachers, academics, and other education personnel. As for the impact of Metaverse on increasing privatisation of the education sector, which is one of the main concerns of education trade unions, ETUCE welcomes the EU Commissions determination to avoid the development of a few gatekeeping big players in the sector of virtual worlds. Indeed, while teachers, academics and other education personnel are still adapting to the use of a variety of new technologies in their pedagogies, we observe that big tech companies are increasingly concentrating significant investments on the development of Metaverse for the education sector, seizing the opportunity to expand their business in the education sector. These dynamics expose the education sector to increased privatisation and risk of further exacerbating existing inequalities. Against this backdrop, ETUCE calls for sustainable public funding for mataverse in education to ensure quality and inclusive education, regardless of socio-economic backgrounds.
Read full responseMeeting with Kurt Vandenberghe (Director-General Climate Action) and EUROPEAN TRADE UNION CONFEDERATION and
28 Apr 2023 · FF55; Net Zero industrial plan; Climate risk assessment
ETUCE demands stronger European laws on work-related mental health
8 Feb 2023
Message — ETUCE calls for an ambitious legislative measure addressing work-related mental health and psychosocial risks. Current European rules have proven insufficient to tackle escalating threats facing teachers.12
Why — Comprehensive legislation would improve teacher retention and protect staff from work-related burnout.34
European teachers union urges mandatory asbestos screening in schools
7 Feb 2023
Topic — This legislative initiative addresses health and environmental risks related to asbestos exposure.
Message — ETUCE calls for mandatory yearly asbestos screening in all public and private schools. They demand digital registries and the inclusion of other cancer-causing fibers.123
Why — Mandatory screening would improve health protections for teachers and increase the teaching profession's appeal.4
Impact — Building owners and public authorities face increased costs for regular inspections and data management.5
Meeting with Victor Negrescu (Member of the European Parliament)
17 Nov 2022 · Situation of teachers and students in the ES system
Response to Developing social economy framework conditions
28 Sept 2022
1. ETUCE welcomes the support that social economy entities could provide in the education and training area, especially regarding social inclusion of disadvantaged groups, and provision of equal opportunities for all, and delivering on the green and digital transitions. Cooperation between education institutions and social economy entities provides opportunities for addressing the needs of various social groups, including migrants, ethnic minorities, students from a disadvantaged socio-economic background, etc. It also contributes to acknowledging, supporting and celebrating diversity among children, students, teachers, academics, school leaders and other education personnel.
2. ETUCE also welcomes the contribution of the social economy to the education for environmental sustainability providing the opportunities for going outside of the educational institution and practicing the green skills and competences focusing them on the needs and specificities of the local community and fitting into students’ personal situations, creating stronger ties between education institution and local community.
3. ETUCE agrees with the European Commission’s evidence that ‘social economy business models, including the cooperative forms, are still far from being a standard component in all entrepreneurship education curricula and business courses’ while ETUCE believes that entrepreneurship education needs to be considered in the context of the overall social – and not only business – environment. However, ETUCE highlights that in order to develop entrepreneurship in its widest sense, it is crucial to invest long term in initial training and continuous professional development of teachers who need to possess the skills and use the appropriate methodologies.
4. Despite of clear benefits of social economy for the education and training sector, ETUCE reminds that quality inclusive education is a fundamental human right and a public good as enshrined in the first principle of the European Pillar of Social Rights, and therefore, is a direct and full responsibility of the state and education public authorities. The social economy should not become a substitution or ‘cheap alternative’ to public education and training, For example, there is a great risk of governments trying to fill the gap of affordable and accessible early childhood education and care provision with social economy services). Likewise, making use of social economy entities to support digital transition in education and training should not substitute the provision of teachers and other education personnel in public education with free access to digital tools, IT equipment, relevant training and adequate technical support. ETUCE supports the uptake of sustainable and socially responsible public procurement by governments and public buyers. ETUCE calls on the European Commission to implement guidance and financial opportunities to facilitate the use of these responsible procurement practices and to revise accordingly the existing European Directives (namely 2014/24/EU).
5. ETUCE also underlines that social economy entities must be accountable before the society and key stakeholders in education and training, including social partners, and Member States’ support for the social economy should not lead to public budget cuts and austerity measures. As highlighted in the ETUCE Position on “A new framework for the Implementation of the European Education Area 2021-2030”, it is imperative that sufficient, sustainable and predictable public investment in public education is boosted to ensure a fair, sustainable and inclusive transition towards a just and resilient society in Europe. It is also crucial to have clear accountability and monitoring mechanisms created within the social economy to avoid the risks of exclusion and inequality, when only some ‘socially approved’ disadvantaged groups would be supported and not others.
Read full responseResponse to Improving the provision of digital skills in education and training
16 Sept 2022
The European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE) represents 127 Education Trade Unions and 11 million teachers in 51 countries in the European Region. ETUCE is a Social Partner in education at the EU level and a European Trade Union Federation within ETUC, the European Trade Union Confederation.
With this feedback, ETUCE would like to draw attention to relevant research findings for the scope of the EC initiative on improving the provision of digital skills in education and training. Please see attached an ETUCE research study elaborated in the framework of the Social Dialogue Project e-Speed Challenges and opportunities for the education sector in the digital era (2020-2021).
The study sheds light on the different impacts of digitalisation in education, including a dedicated chapter on the digital skills of teachers, trainers, school leaders, academic staff, and other education personnel with concrete recommendations on improving their provision.
Read full responseResponse to Enabling factors for digital education
16 Sept 2022
ETUCE, the European Trade Union Committee for Education, is a Social Partner in education at the EU level representing 127 Education Trade Unions and 11 million teachers in 51 countries of Europe.
ETUCE welcomes that the initiative underlines the importance of professional development and support for teachers and other education personnel. Indeed, more than 50% of education trade unions across Europe report that teachers do not have adequate skills to adequately deal with digital tools. In addition, 65% of ETUCE members highlight that teachers have not received effective and quality professional training on digital pedagogies. Against this backdrop, the Council Recommendation must urge the development of adequate initial education programmes and quality and accessible professional development opportunities within the working time to meet the needs of digital skills, digital literacy, and pedagogies for digital education.
ETUCE welcomes that the framework of this initiative is built around a whole-government approach and closer dialogue between education institutions and relevant stakeholders. In this context, the Council Recommendation must emphasise the central role of social dialogue with education trade unions in the design, implementation, and governance of education policies regarding digitalisation. Therefore, a clear call for collective agreements and collective bargaining with education trade unions must be included in the Council Recommendation.
For digital tools to contribute to quality education for all, digital education policy must be coherent with a need-based approach within the overall mission of holistic education. This is crucial to foster the development of the full potential of each student while leaving no one behind. Therefore, when framing education policy strategies, it is essential to consider digital tools as supportive tools for in-presence teaching to guarantee high-quality education to all students and preserve the invaluable social aspects of learning, particularly in primary and secondary education. In this sense, digital tools for education must be developed and used in the best way to respond to the specific needs of students, teachers, school leaders, academics, and other education personnel, while respecting the professional autonomy and academic freedom of teaching professionals.
Ensuring that the digital infrastructures of education institutions are adequately equipped for digital education is an important precondition to implementing quality education. In this respect, ETUCE highlights that a significant socio-economic divide at the expense of rural and poorer areas is persisting with relatively low levels of confidence of education personnel in using digital technologies in their daily work. For these purposes, sustainable public investment should be provided by national governments. ETUCE further encourages the European Commission to provide financial support through European funding such as Horizon Europe, Digital Europe, and the National Recovery and Resilience Facility.
ETUCE underlines the crucial role of sustainable public investment in ensuring quality education. Nevertheless, education is increasingly subject to the influence of private investment, for-profit companies, and public-private partnerships which, by being profit-driven, cannot ensure that digital educational tools reflect appropriately the pedagogical contents, mission and desired outcomes of the tools and raise key concerns over data privacy, security and balance interests of the profit-driven market orientation and public mission of the education. Therefore, the Council Recommendation must call on national governments not to limit their scope to regulating the EdTech sector but take on a more prominent role in developing public platforms for online teaching and learning to protect the public value of education.
Read full responseMeeting with Werner Stengg (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager) and European Trade Union Institute
16 Jun 2022 · AI Act, digital education.
Response to A New European Innovation Agenda
25 Apr 2022
The issues addressed in the New European Innovation Agenda (NEIA) are inherently linked to university innovation policies. Such strategies, specifically regarding the funding and measuring of innovation, impact universities’ policy on partnerships with businesses, funding sources of research, and the contractual situation of researchers. Therefore, the NEIA should pay attention to ensuring sustainable public funding for research, supportive working environment for academics, and academic freedom.
Trade unions of researchers believe that re-enforcing research and innovation in Europe can be achieved by sustainable public investment in public research, respect of academic freedom and freedom of research, gender equality, fair working conditions, decent salary and permanent contractual status of the researchers and early-stage researchers, and effective social dialogue with the researchers’ trade unions. ETUCE believes that a truly inclusive and fair NEIA should be developed in cooperation with researchers. Therefore, the European Commission encourage the EU member states to ensure the involvement of the research’s trade unions to the national governance on research and innovation strategies especially in relation to shaping and the implementation of the NEIA.
The European Commission’s work on the NEIA needs to respect already existing national and institutional frameworks and agreements, including collective agreements on researchers’ career development and safeguard institutional autonomy and academic freedom in line with the UN Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel of 1997 , the Art. 13 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU , and Council of Europe Recommendation 1762 (2006) on Academic freedom and university autonomy .
The COVID-19 crisis had a detrimental impact on the researchers and research in both the public and private sectors. National research and innovation strategies can be successful when researchers have stable employment and good working conditions which have positive impact on the quality of research and on the well-being, creativity and innovativeness of the researchers. Therefore, the NEIA should support the recovery of Europe from a social perspective and contribute to guaranteeing good working conditions for the researchers.
Underinvestment from the public sector, business orientation, growing reform pressures to better align university outcomes and governance to the business needs, as well as financial incentives steering research and funding to business priorities undermine the freedom of researchers to conduct research without interference. The Codes and Charters (European Charter for Researchers, the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity, Council conclusions on advancing Gender Equality in the European Research Area, Bonn Declaration on scientific freedom) are not fully respected by these policies. Sustainable public budget has an impact on the ability of universities as collegial bodies to foster independent basic research including in such areas as health, the environment and social sciences, providing short and long-term benefits to society and the economy. It is essential that the NEIA guarantees sustainable public investment to public research, academic freedom, freedom of knowledge and research, freedom of expression, and institutional autonomy.
Read full responseResponse to Social and labour aspects of the climate transition
19 Nov 2021
ETUCE welcomes this initiative, as climate emergency can be tackled effectively only through a broad social change towards a collective society based on the principles of democracy, social justice, solidarity and equality. Environmental challenges and measures have a significant impact on the European labour market and on workers’ lives, including working conditions, health and safety at work, pay security, social protection and labour rights. ETUCE welcomes the call for a ‘investment in reskilling and upskilling’ and notes that just and inclusive green transition requires setting up the national green skills and competences framework which should be designed and implemented in a permanent consultation with education personnel and trade unions. It is also crucial that teachers and trainers have access to quality and inclusive training on green skills and competences within initial and continuous teacher training. However, reskilling and upskilling alone are not sufficient for ‘necessary behavioural changes’. Climate emergency requires individual and collective changes in people’s mentality, behaviour, lifestyle, as well as in the social, political and economic organisation of countries and societies. This can be done only through integrating environmental sustainability in all education sectors starting from the very early age and going far beyond addressing it only in a curriculum. Therefore, the Recommendation has to provide a clear set of actions for ‘quality and inclusive education, training and life-long learning’ for green transition based on the holistic perspective of education and well-being of the students and teachers. It should focus not only on the needs of the labour market but underline importance of guaranteeing social and economic wellbeing and active citizenship for the students. ETUCE has proposed many concrete suggestions on this topic in its Position on the Council Recommendation on Education for Environmental Sustainability. ETUCE welcomes the call to promote inclusive participation of social partners and notes that just green transition also requires a change towards a more democratised school governance with the involvement of teachers, trainers, other education personnel, students and families, as well as enhanced and collegial governance in higher education and research. Frameworks for teaching about sustainability, including reskilling and upskilling, should be flexible, adapted to students’ and local community needs, and respecting teachers’ professional autonomy. ETUCE highlights that policies for a sustainable green transition should have a long-term vision and be evidence-based which requires the strong cooperation and involvement of research and higher education institutions. These policies and frameworks need to be also supported by the solid public funding, not just the ‘optimal use of public and private funding’. ETUCE recalls that it is the governments’ responsibility to increase funding and to design public education budgets in a manner that provides sufficient, predictable and sustainable resources and in a holistic, rather than fragmented and project-based, manner. Regarding the labour aspects of green transition, ETUCE reminds that sustainable and decent working conditions in the education sector require the education infrastructure which is built with a view to creating climate-aware and environment-preserving learning and teaching environments. It also means addressing the issues of teacher shortage and attractiveness of the teaching profession, in particular in the VET sector. ETUCE recommends including the issues of equality in the Recommendation transversally (and not only in essential services) and addressing the magnifying effect of the climate emergency on the already existing geographical, socio-economic, gender, citizenship, and other inequalities. Governments should take a full responsibility for people affected by the climate emergency (eg. climate-induced migration, poverty)
Read full responseResponse to European universities - deeper and sustainable transnational cooperation in higher education
17 Nov 2021
ETUCE, which represents 127 education trade unions in 51 countries, a total of 11 million members all over Europe including the higher education and research staff welcomes that the European Commission (COM) asks broader stakeholders about their views on the forthcoming initiative. As European social partners in higher education within the European Sectoral Social Dialogue for Education, we would be happy to further contribute to this initiative.
We welcome that the COM recognises the national competence on higher education, academic freedom and institutional autonomy as these fundamental values were stipulated in the Rome Communiqué. Still, joint accreditation and quality assurance procedures of the European University Alliances can have a negative impact on the institutional autonomy and academic freedom.
As the COM acknowledges that the initiative will have an impact on academic staff, the education trade unions of the higher education and research sectors at national and European level should be involved in designing this initiative. The COM should remind the MSs about effective social dialogue with education trade unions. We do not agree with sharing human resources of the HEIs, a concept mentioned in the COM’s paper. We are concerned that if HEIs start sharing the workplace and working hours of the academics they will reduce their permanent contracts to temporary or short-term contracts. This can further increase precariousness in the sector affecting the working conditions of the staff which have detrimental impact on quality of teaching and research. Thus, the initiative should deal with ensuring the well-being of academics in relation to ensuring high quality teaching and research by asking MSs to guarantee permanent contract, fair working conditions and decent salary of the higher education and research staff. Collegial governance, high quality working conditions as well as initial training and continuous professional development are crucial to ensuring quality research, teaching and effective educational outcomes for students, and respect for these is enshrined in the Rome Communiqué.
We welcome that the initiative will focus on parity of esteem of teaching and research, staff assessment, recognition of mobility, and new pedagogies. The initiative should ask the MSs to shift the approach of quantitative assessment of publication of the academics towards more qualitative assessment of teaching and research following effective social dialogue with the education trade unions. Quality assurance and conditions of accreditation should also link to ensuring decent salary, fair working conditions and permanent contracts to the staff. It is essential to involve the education trade unions in designing quality assurance systems. In order to improve quality teaching, staff require effective continuous professional development and pedagogical support. When promoting online teaching, the COM should consider the negative impact digital teaching during the COVID had on academics and students.
Quality higher education and research should not be seen as commodity. It is the MSs’ primary responsibility to increase funding to provide sufficient, predictable and sustainable resources even after the lifetime of the Recovery Plans and in a holistic, rather than fragmented and project-based, manner. Concerning graduate tracking we ask the COM not to encourage MSs to introduce performance-based funding of HEIs based on the graduates’ employability. Education is a human right and public good. The holistic view of higher education must be protected to allow students to acquire social skills and not only short-term labour market relevant knowledge. We remind that access to full qualifications provided by HEIs should be a right to all students, and micro-credentials should not be used as a reason of reducing public funding to HEIs or to reduce access to full study programmes for the socio-economically disadvantaged learners.
Read full responseResponse to European Strategy for Universities
5 Nov 2021
ETUCE, which represents 127 education trade unions in 51 countries, a total of 11 million members all over Europe including the higher education and research staff welcomes that the European Commission (COM) asks the stakeholders’ views on the forthcoming initiative. As European social partners in higher education within the European Sectoral Social Dialogue for Education, we would be happy to further contribute to this initiative.
ETUCE welcomes that the COM recognises the national competence on higher education, academic freedom and institutional autonomy of the higher education institutions (HEIs) as these fundamental values were stipulated in the Rome Communiqué. However, concerning seeking “deeper transnational cooperation” among universities by “pooling resources, knowledge, infrastructure, education and R&I strategies”, as mentioned in the COM paper, we are concerned that this approach would reduce institutional autonomy and academic freedom by harmonising higher education. We urge the COM to recognise that harmonisation of higher education is not in line with Art 165 of the EU Treaty and it would not make European universities more inclusive, strong and effective, the objectives the new initiative is aiming at. This approach would motivate HEIs to share the workplace and working hours of the academics which will force them to work on temporary contracts and short-term contracts. This can further increase precariousness in the sector affecting the working conditions and health and safety of the staff which have detrimental impact on quality of teaching and research. Thus, the COM’s initiative should deal with ensuring the well-being of academics in relation to ensuring high quality teaching and research by asking Member States (MSs) to guarantee permanent contract, fair working conditions and decent salary of the higher education and research staff. The COM should remind the MSs about effective social dialogue with trade unions in the higher education and research sectors. Collegial governance, high quality working conditions as well as initial training and continuous professional development are crucial to ensure quality research, teaching and effective educational outcomes for students, and respect for these is enshrined in the Rome Communiqué.
We ask to respect that higher education is a human right and public good. Sustainable public investment to HEIs need to be guaranteed. Quality higher education should not be seen as commodity. Higher education systems need to be based on the values of diversity and inclusiveness. We welcome that that initiative aims at helping HEIs to improve inclusiveness of and equal access to higher education. This is particularly important in line with the implementation of Annex II of the Rome Communique on Principles and Guidelines to Strengthen Social Dimension which says that “Public authorities should support and provide adequate means to higher education institutions to improve initial and continuing professional training for academic and administrative staff to enable them to work professionally and equitably with a diverse student body and staff.” Thus, we ask that the COM’s initiative to focus also on effective support to academics. Higher education is key in promoting common European values, fostering social integration and a sense of belonging to the community, enhancing intercultural understanding and preventing radicalisation. This holistic view of education must be protected to allow students to acquire social skills and not only short-term labour market relevant knowledge. The new initiative should encourage ministries and HEIs to take effective actions to ensure the right to access quality and inclusive higher education for all in line with the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights. We ask the COM to strictly monitor high quality education and inclusivity of the European University Alliances.
Our report to the BFUG on impact of COVID on staff is attached.
Read full responseResponse to Requirements for Artificial Intelligence
30 Jul 2021
The European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE), Social Partner in education at the EU level, representing 127 Education Trade Unions and 11 million teachers in Europe, welcomes the Commission’s proposal for the AI Regulation as it sets the ground for the first comprehensive EU regulation on Artificial Intelligence to ensure a controlled development of AI tools in education and address the risks connected to their use by teachers, academic, other education personnel and students.
Education as High-Risk sector:
ETUCE welcomes the classification of AI tools in education as high-risk and the setting of stricter legal requirements for the AI tools used in the education sector. As for the setting up of a risk management system, ETUCE calls for clear and binding measures, including ethical guidelines, to address the risks that AI tools pose concerning transparency, accountability, intellectual property rights, data privacy, cyber-safety, equality and environmental protection.
Governance:
An effective implementation of the AI legislation in education requires the meaningful involvement of teachers, academics and education staff as co-creators of AI tools in education. It is therefore crucial that education social partners are actively involved in the activities of the proposed European Artificial Intelligence Board through regular consultations and meaningful social dialogue to monitor the implementation of the Regulation and address the risks related to the use of AI in education.
The role of teachers:
ETUCE calls for the AI Regulation to interdict the AI tools that are designed to replace education personnel or can damage the social value and the quality of education. Besides, AI tools should not reduce the role of teachers to mere providers of instructions but rather serves as a supporting tool for the teaching profession while preserving the professional and pedagogical autonomy and academic freedom of teachers and academics.
Transparency and AI literacy:
ETUCE highlights the need to improve the importance of digital skills, AI literacy and data literacy in educational curricula and raise awareness on the risks related to the use of AI tools in education. While the AI Regulation blandly mention to the possibility of providing users with training on Artificial Intelligence, ETUCE emphasises that it is crucial that sustainable public funding are provided at national and European level to ensure that education personnel receive up-to-date and free of charge continuous training and professional development on the use of AI tools in accordance with their professional needs.
EdTech, IPR and data privacy :
ETUCE calls for further public responsibility from national governments to develop and implement public platforms for online teaching and learning to protect the public value of education. Public platforms should respect professional autonomy of education personnel without creating pressure on teachers and education personnel regarding the education material and pedagogical methods they use. It is also essential to protect the accountability and transparency in the governance of public education systems from the influence of private and commercial interests and actors.
Equality and inclusion:
The lack of diversity among professionals responsible for designing, testing and training the algorithms and data of AI tools translate in the presence of biases in AI tools, leading to a detrimental impact on inclusion and equality in education. ETUCE urges the provision of adequate public investment to encourage more diversity in the STEAM sector and ensure that AI tools are designed and used with the full representation of the wide society. ETUCE also suggests to further explore how AI systems can act as supporting tools to detect and counter cyber-violence, cyber-bullying and cyber-harassment.
Full ETUCE feedback available in the attachment.
Read full responseResponse to Pathways to School Success
20 May 2021
ETUCE which represents 127 education trade unions within 51 countries in Europe welcomes that the European Commission’s initiative contributes to the implementation of the 1st principle of the European Pillar of Social Rights. It is essential to enhance quality and inclusiveness in education in order to fight against early school leaving (ESL) and underachievement in learning. The European Commission should also underline how high quality of education as a public good should be guaranteed to each pupil under this initiative. The EU initiative should not only focus on measurable basic skills (reading, mathematics and science), but rather on key competences, and it should examine what kind of support teachers and education staff have received to include key competences in their teaching since the 2018 Council Recommendation and what additional support they need.
The initiative should motivate governments to set up comprehensive policy measures with effective cooperation among different ministries (education, employment and social affairs, finances, digitalization and innovation, etc) and with the education social partners to effectively fight against ESL and underachievement. We remind that mostly socio-economic disadvantages result in low achievement in schools, thus this problem should be solved with effective government policies not only on education but also on housing, welfare and healthcare. The EU Member States need to ensure sustainable national public investment to education which is an essential prerequisite to fight against ESL and underachievement. We welcome that the European Semester process will provide targeted recommendations to countries to invest to fight against ESL and that EU funds (Erasmus, ESF+, RRF) will further support this.
Democratic governance of education and collaborative leadership in schools are fundamental requirements of high quality education systems to fight against ESL and underachievement. We welcome that the initiative will focus on learning environments which need to be supportive working environments and ensure good working conditions for the teachers. As the initiative foresees reforms on curricula, pedagogies, assessment, etc., it is important that the Commission proposes effective solutions to the Member States on how to prepare teachers for the profession and make the profession attractive.
We request that the initiative also contribute to the implementation of the Council conclusions on European teachers and trainers for the future (2020). In order to provide quality education for all and to fight effectively against ESL and underachievement, it is essential to ensure better career opportunities, high job security and social protection, decent salary for the teachers and reinforce collective bargaining. Thus, the initiative should recommend to the Member States the essential involvement of education trade unions in the framework of effective social dialogue in designing and implementing necessary educational reforms this policy will entail.
We require that the initiative encourage countries to ensure that every school has education support personnel such as psychologist and education counsellors who can provide targeted support to children with mental disorders, depression and to fight against harassment and bullying. The initiative should also take into account the impact that the use of digital technologies and ICTs in education have on underachievement and ESL. The European Commission should call on the Member States to ensure sustainable public funding to provide all the students with equal access to digital infrastructures and adequate support to integrate in digital education environment and to conduct further research on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the educational achievements. Accessible and free CPD on using digital technologies and promoting inclusive education should be guaranteed to teachers at all levels of education.
Read full responseResponse to Online and distance learning in primary and secondary education
11 May 2021
The European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE), which represents 127 Education Trade Unions in 51 countries, carefully analysed the roadmap for a EU initiative on online and distance learning in primary and secondary education.
The switch to remote and online teaching and learning due to the COVID-19 crisis caused unprecedented challenges to teachers and other education personnel, especially in primary and secondary education. As the ETUCE statement on tackling the COVID-19 crisis highlights, teachers and other education personnel made huge efforts to ensure quality teaching, in most cases, to the detriment of their mental health and wellbeing. The emergency measures in education resulted soon in increased workload for teachers, who missed support and training on the use of digital tools as well as adequate ICT devices and technical assistance during the online teaching and learning. The work-life balance of teachers has been particularly under stress, especially for those, in majority women, who needed to handle care responsibilities for children and the elderly at the same time. In addition, the health and financial crisis also resulted in cuts of public budget to education and increased attempts of privatisation, including a rapid and uncontrolled establishment of Edtech companies in the education sector. Important issues also concern data protection, as well as copyright and intellectual property rights of teachers who are increasingly put under pressure by education institutions claiming the right over the teaching material.
ETUCE recognises remote teaching as an emergency action against the backdrop of the current pandemic which should not be considered the “new normal”. In-person teaching in a healthy and safe environment for students and teachers should continue to be the norm.
The attached document is an ETUCE report on the impact of emergency online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic on teachers and other education personnel. The report is based on the findings of the ETUCE study on “Occupational health and safety of teachers, academics and other education personnel in times of COVID-19" and feedback received by education trade unions at the ETUCE webinar “Education trade unions in times of COVID-19 and beyond” (12 March 2021).
Read full responseResponse to Education for environmental sustainability
10 May 2021
ETUCE welcomes the Commission’s initiative to propose the Council Recommendation on education for environmental sustainability. However, this Recommendation might have a limited impact on the national level as its implementation is on the basis of voluntary participation of Member States and no impact assessment is involved. Moving towards environmental sustainability requires solidarity at all levels: among countries, regions, policymakers, education stakeholders, education institutions, etc.
The Roadmap rightly notes that there is still a lack of common understanding of the education for sustainable development. ETUCE highlights that environmental sustainability requires a drastic social change, including individual and collective changes in our mentality, behaviour, lifestyle, as well as in the social, political and economic organisation of our countries and societies. Education is the best tool to drive such a change, but it requires sufficient time, long term policy vision and sustainable public investment, in particular, in the framework of the European recovery and resilience facility and the NextGenerationEU package.
Education for environmental sustainability means a fundamentally different from traditional educational approach based on:
interdisciplinary learning where the topic is transversal throughout all subjects in the curricula and not only in the specific social or natural science subjects.
whole-institutional approach where all education institution actors work together towards sustainable development. This approach includes co-teaching and co-learning, participatory pedagogies, project-based activities, development of policies and missions of the whole education institution to be environmentally aware and preserving, and other elements.
‘hands-on’ approach to learning and teaching based on concrete actions. Such approach includes going outside of the educational institution and to practice the green skills and competences and to link them also to the needs and specificities of the local community and students’ personal situations.
This shift of the learning and teaching approaches require not only a revision of such educational elements as curricula, learning materials and textbooks, teaching materials and guidelines, assessments, teacher training etc. Given a central role played by teachers, trainers, academics and other education personnel in delivering education on environmental sustainability, the focus of the integration of education for environmental sustainability must be on preparing and supporting education personnel (including school leaders) as well as involving them and social partners representing them in all planning, designing, implementing and assessing phases of this shift at all levels (European, national, and institutional).
ETUCE also warns that teachers, trainers, academics and other education personnel need sufficient time and space within the curricula and teaching schedule to be able to implement the ‘hands-on’ and transversal approach of the education for environmental sustainability. Continuous professional development of teachers, trainers, academics and other education personnel is absolutely key for integration of education for environmental sustainability. It has to match the needs of teachers and other education personnel, be provided during their working time to ensure the access, and be supported by sustainable and adequate public funding.
Education trade unions demand that following commitment of governments in Europe and the EU to implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the European Pillar of Social Rights, this Council Recommendation makes it clear that the responsibility for the sustainable development is shared by everyone, including European and national level institutions, and that Member States’ governments, education authorities and employers in education are held responsible for ensuring evidence-based education for environmental sustainability.
Read full responseResponse to Pact for Research and Innovation in Europe
29 Apr 2021
Trade unions of researchers believe that re-enforcing research and innovation in Europe can be achieved by sustainable public investment in public research, respecting academic freedom and the freedom of research, ensuring gender equality, fair working conditions, decent salary and permanent contractual status of the researchers and early-stage researchers, and by effective social dialogue with the researchers’ trade unions.
ETUCE believes that a truly inclusive and fair new ERA needs to be developed in cooperation with the researchers themselves in the governance and within effective social dialogue with researchers' trade unions. We remind that the Codes and Charters the Pact plans to merge were developed with researchers’ trade unions and have impact on researchers’ recruitment and working condition and the freedom of research. Thus, the Roadmap should explain how the involvement of the trade unions of researchers in the European and national level governance on the Pact and on research and innovation strategies will be ensured by the Commission and EU member states.
The COVID-19 crisis had a detrimental impact on the researchers and research in both the public and private research sectors. While their trade unions negotiated hard for employers to acknowledge that research carried out remotely during the lock-down be considered as work, still many researchers were laid off or threatened to be unemployed. Fair working condition, health and safety, and intellectual property rights of the researchers have not been respected in many cases. National research and innovation strategies cannot be successful when researchers are facing such difficulties which have negative impact on the quality of research and on the well-being and creativity of the researchers.
The Codes and Charters mentioned in the Roadmap have direct impact on researchers’ daily work and working conditions and they should be fully implemented within EU countries. The European Commission’s work on merging these Codes and Charters into the Pact needs to respect already existing national and institutional frameworks and agreements, including collective agreements on researchers’ working conditions and career development and safeguard institutional autonomy and academic freedom in line with the UN Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel of 1997 , the Art. 13 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU , and Council of Europe Recommendation 1762 (2006) on Academic freedom and university autonomy .
The Roadmap should explain how the Pact will support the recovery of Europe from a social perspective. Ensuring public investment to public research is essential to define reforms and financial priorities to accelerate the green and digital transition in R&I. Underinvestment from the public sector, growing pressures to better align research outcomes and governance to the business needs, as well as financial incentives steering research and its funding to business priorities undermine the freedom of researchers to conduct research without interference. The Codes and Charters are not fully respected by these marketisation policies. Sustainable public budget fosters independent basic research including in such areas as health, the environment and social sciences, and provides short and long-term benefits to society and the economy. The Roadmap should explain how the Pact will guarantee that the EU countries ensure sustainable public budget to public R&I and respect the value of academic freedom of research in line with UNESCO Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers (2017) .
Read full responseResponse to Individual Learning Accounts – A possibility to empower individuals to undertake training
12 Apr 2021
ETUCE which represents 127 education trade unions within 51 countries in Europe carefully read the Inception Impact Assessment of the European Commission’s Public Consultation. We believe that instead of focusing on one single financial mechanism (ILA), the European Commission’s initiative should focus on how to guarantee right to access to adult learning, employee training and to paid education leave to all adults and employees, including the public sector workers, and it should motivate the EU member states to set up or improve their financial mechanism by their choice (eg ILAs, vouchers, employers’ levy, etc) in order to support the teachers’ access to high quality and inclusive continuous professional development within this policy.
The main challenges for teachers in relation to continuous professional development (CPD) are connected to access, finance, recognition and quality assurance. While the 1st principle of the European Pillar of Social Right should be implemented and to apply to all employees, CPD and paid education leave of the teachers is not a right in every European country. However, around two-third of European countries consider CPD either as a professional duty (12 national education systems) or a mandatory activity. CPD of the teachers can take place within the workplace (schools) (e.g. on the use of IT tools, teachers cooperation, mentoring, training on health and safety) or outside the school (courses, conferences, workshops, etc). Paid educational leave can supports’ teachers’ training from personal interest (ensured by public budget) or it can support access to training by request of the employer (financed by the employer). The European Commission considers individual learning accounts same as ensuring right to continuous professional training. ETUCE is against this approach. An EU initiative on supporting access and financing of adult learning and employee training by different financial tools (eg ILAs) can only act as a supportive instrument for teachers training if it recommends to countries to ensure CPD as a right to teachers via effective social dialogue with the education trade unions. Also, ILO Convention 140 on paid educational leave must be implemented in every country so that teachers can use it. Only after having established the status of CPD as a right in the national legislation or via collective agreements, it is possible to discuss the development of financial mechanisms to support paid leave, for example by using ILAs or any other tools the national education social partners can agree with (eg vouchers). Defining national requirements on qualifications and competences of the teachers provided by initial education and professional training is a national competence. The EU-level initiative can solve some challenges in teachers’ accessing CPD. Recommendations to EU Member States to develop effective solutions to improve access for teachers to quality and inclusive CPD within working hours and for free would be essential. However, the EU-level initiative on financing CPDs (e.g. ILAs) should respect national systems of qualification and competence requirements towards teachers and not create an EU-level harmonised system for financing teachers’ CPD.
The initiative should recommend to countries to improve the quality standards of training and quality assurance of the providers of teachers’ training. More EU-level research is necessary to clearly understand the regulation about CPD to teachers at each education sectors. Most data available, in OECD TALIS and Eurydice only cover teachers in secondary education.
Read full responseResponse to Micro-credentials
11 Mar 2021
For education trade unions the EU policy on micro-credentials is important from the perspective of ensuring that national requirements to pursue the teaching profession are respected and academic freedom and institutional autonomy of higher education institutions are safeguarded. Micro-credentials can be useful in addition to full qualifications but they should not be confused with partial or full qualifications. We welcome that the European Commission’s Roadmap acknowledges these differences.
Micro-credentials should not be seen as tools of improving quality and inclusiveness of education and training and innovation within teaching and pedagogy. We request that the first principle of the Europen Pillar of Social Rights is implemented to ensure the right of all pupils and students to quality and inclusive education and to access full qualifications. Such a right should be also guaranteed to teachers in order to access quality and inclusive initial and continuous professional education. National education and training systems and national regulations and requirements to be fully qualified as a teacher must be respected. Courses leading to micro-credentials can be considered as continuous professional development but not replacement of the initial education of the teachers.
We agree that the quality standards are not clear in relation to the provision of courses leading to micro-credentials. Micro-credentials should be meaningful and have high quality, be based on standards on delivery mode, assessment procedure, duration, and validity and they should indicate how they link to full qualifications. Micro-credentials alone will not necessarily improve the recognition of learning outcomes by the employers and education institutions. We welcome that the European Commission plans to set up European standards on micro-credentials and a list of trusted providers with the involvement of the social partners. We underline the utmost importance of social dialogue with the education trade unions on this policy initiative which will have a significant impact on education staff.
The Roadmap should mention that the European Commission’s policy on micro-credentials will protect academic freedom and the institutional autonomy of universities. We underline that provision of short labour market related courses should be voluntary for the higher education institutions and their control on their micro-credentials or lifelong learning courses should remain within the institution. The Roadmap should also highlight that the EU policy on micro-credentials will not risk public funding to universities. Academic freedom and the institutional autonomy have been under attack following cuts in public budget and increasing demands towards the universities to serve labour market needs. We do not agree with the Roadmap that short-term courses such as the ones leading to micro-credentials can increase the “efficiency” of higher education institutions. Instead, sustainable public investment, respect of academic freedom and institutional autonomy, and ensuring decent salary and fair working conditions of the higher education and research staff can ensure efficiency, quality and inclusiveness of higher education. We also do not agree that the purpose of the micro-credential courses be to improve the access of the socially disadvantaged people to further learning within higher education. We are concerned that such an approach would increase inequalities between those who have access to full study programmes leading to full qualifications and between those who have the means (because of financial or family reasons) to access only the short-time lifelong learning courses. Equal access of all students to full degree programs need to be ensured while enrolling to micro-credential courses should be voluntary.
Read full responseMeeting with Mariya Gabriel (Commissioner) and European Federation for Family Employment & Home Care- Fédération européenne des emplois de la famille
4 Dec 2020 · Important developments and upcoming trends in the education sector
Meeting with Andrea Nahles (Cabinet of Commissioner Nicolas Schmit) and Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund and
12 Nov 2020 · Social dialogue
Meeting with Stella Kyriakides (Commissioner) and
11 Nov 2020 · Meeting with EU Social Partners on the Pharmaceutical Strategy and Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan
Response to Union of Equality: European Disability Rights Strategy
10 Nov 2020
Based on its reply to the public consultation on the assessment of the implementation of the European Disability Strategy 2010-2020, ETUCE puts forward the following demands for the new Strategy. These conditions are crucial for ‘developing inclusive and accessible education as a key prerequisite for participation in the society and to get employment’ for people with disabilities as highlighted in the European Commission’s Roadmap.
1. In order to not remain a mere declaration of rights, the Disability Rights Strategy 2021-2030 must contain a clear commitment of the European Commission to closely monitor its implementation, including gathering all kind of data on the state of art in each country and specifying a consistent funding allocated for the implementation of each point of the Strategy.
2. The Strategy has to underline the commitment of the European Commission and Member States to promote effective social dialogue on how to integrate children and students with special needs in education not only with the civil society, but also with education trade unions.
3. The Strategy should demand a removal of all legal, physical and organisational barriers, as well as provision of adequate accommodation of the school infrastructure, curricula and teaching methods, for all persons with disabilities in order to guarantee inclusive education and lifelong learning systems.
4. The Strategy has to include the need of granting children and students with special needs the right to attend ordinary schools, to have access to specialised teachers and other education personnel, as well as to ad-hoc tools and programmes.
5. The Strategy needs to highlight the importance of initial and continuous professional development of education personnel to work with persons with special needs, as well as the crucial need of specialised assistants in the classrooms and smaller class sizes.
6. As witnessed during the period of distance learning due to COVID-19 crisis, digital education tools are largely not adapted to specific needs of people with disabilities, making distance learning and teaching inaccessible for the majority of students and education personnel with special needs. Therefore, the new Strategy has to specify the obligation of Member States to ensure access to appropriate digital and communication devices and tools adapted to special needs of people with disabilities for all students and education personnel with special needs. Furthermore, teachers, academics and other education personnel need to be better equipped to use specific ICTs (e.g. adaptive or assistive devices) so that they can be effectively supported in their use of ICT as a tool for personalised learning in inclusive settings at all levels of education.
7. The Disability Rights Strategy 2021-2030 should be taking into account the intersectional dimension of discrimination where multiple discrimination takes place based on several grounds at the same time (e.g. gender, age, and disability). It is equally important to mainstream special needs into the different policy areas, including digital skills and green skills. Priority should be given to lifelong learning while connecting to labour market skills as education is first and foremost a public good and a human right.
8. Finally, the new Strategy should address the need to help the families of disabled students and highlight the important role that parents and families of disabled students and young people have in taking care of their education.
Read full responseMeeting with Themis Christophidou (Director-General Education, Youth, Sport and Culture)
28 Oct 2020 · Discussion on the recent developments in education including the European Education Area and the Digital Education Action Plan.
Response to European Child Guarantee
1 Oct 2020
ETUCE represents 11 million teachers and education sector staff. Education trade unions welcome that the European Commission launched this initiative as child poverty and the consequential unequal access to early childhood education (ECE) seriously affect our society and education systems. According to Eurostat, 23,4% of the children in the European Union were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2018. ETUCE believes that this percentage has increased due to the social and economic crisis that the COVID pandemic has brought upon Europe. We are deeply concerned that social and economic inequalities among children that lead to inequal access to quality early childhood education have a detrimental effect on children’s life and their future learning possibilities.
We remind the European Commission to ensure that the upcoming European Child Guarantee initiative encourages each EU country to guarantee that every child has the right to equal access to free, high-quality and inclusive early childhood education. We also underline the importance of holistic education and play-based pedagogies, and the crucial contribution that ECE makes in preparing children to fully participate in society. In addition, we request that the Child Guarantee should reinforce the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations (UN), namely the SDG1 which aims to reduce
Ensuring high quality and inclusive ECE for all children must start at improving the quality of initial training for ECE teachers. However, unattractive salaries and working conditions of the ECE staff sorely undermine the possibility to attract highly skilled personnel to the ECE institutions. As shown by the latest OECD data, salary of ECE teachers in the European Union is way below the level of teachers in other education sectors with ECE teachers earning in average 10% less than primary teachers and 17% less than higher education colleagues. We believe that the Child Guarantee initiative should also respond to the demands of education trade unions to ensure decent salary and fair working conditions for ECE staff as high-quality services for children require highly qualified and well-remunerated professional staff.
meaningful social dialogue and collective bargaining involving those working in the sector at all levels of education, can pave the way to developing effective policies for the benefit of all children. It is only through meaningful information, consultations, and negotiations, that successful joint policies are developed and implemented. In the wake of this initiative, we call the European Commission to provide support for increased capacity of social partners in education to promote social dialogue on early childhood education policies, according to national practices and aiming at a shared goal of upward European convergence. Alike, while the situation regarding quality access and provision of early childhood education might differ significantly across countries, there are many common challenges education personnel in the field might face across Europe. As the voice of teachers and other education personnel across Europe, and recognised European social partner in education, ETUCE deems of outmost importance to recall the role of the European social dialogue in this important field.
We are concerned that private institutions are not adequate to guarantee the right of children to have equal access to quality education. Access fees to ECE institutions and the increasing privatisation of early childhood education schools and systems contribute to exacerbating child poverty and increase the inequal access to ECE. We remind that the Child Guarantee can be a successful initiative if it demands EU Member States to increase public investment to ECE and stop further privatisation measures to include early childhood education as part of the public education provision.
Read full responseResponse to Achieving the European Education Area
5 Aug 2020
ETUCE represents 131 education trade unions within 51 countries. Teachers in every education sector made limitless efforts during the COVID-19 crisis to make education ongoing many times without having the relevant IT skills and tools. Their trade unions tirelessly supported the education staff to ensure salary, working conditions, and access to training, IT materials, tools and internet connection.
Education is a human right and public good and this has to be respected and strengthened as a future EU objective in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nation (UN) and the full implementation of the first principle of the European Pillar of Social Rights. We believe that achieving the European Education Area is possible only if EU member states report to the European Commission regularly on what actions and strategies they took to achieve that quality and inclusive education, training and LLL is a right for all.
Concerning the public consultation, we believe that the European Commission can achieve the European Education Area only with clear monitoring on national actions and reforms in line with the following goals:
- Right to high quality and inclusive education for all supported by sustainable public investment;
- Quality and inclusiveness of education achieved by clear national strategies to be updated to new needs;
- Right and guarantee of high quality and inclusive training and lifelong learning for teachers and trainers on necessary skills, including digital and green skills and skills required by the teachers, supported by public budget;
- Education as a human right and public good to prepare the students to be open-minded, culturally sensitive and responsible citizens with solid democratic values and ready for necessary upskilling within the labour market;
- Improved governance: Social dialogue need to be strengthened and national strategies need to be set up with the education trade unions and based on research on students’ and teachers’ needs.
Democratic governance of education and collaborative leadership in schools are the fundamental requirements of high quality and inclusive education systems. This entails the essential involvement of education trade unions in the framework of effective social dialogue with education employer organisations and governments, in designing and implementing (including monitoring and evaluating) necessary educational reforms. In the post-2020 strategy, the assurance of effective social dialogue with education trade unions should be a target.
In order to develop relevant indicators for the future for education and training, we ask the Commission to carry out thorough research and impact assessment, and adjust the targets based on trustworthy data on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on education, the students and teachers. The targets/indicators/benchmarks should lead to set up actions to support the socio-economically disadvantaged students with joint social and education policies.
Teachers should be entitled to better career opportunities, high job security and social protection, and decent salary reaching the same level in every country as of other tertiary graduated employees. Within the post-2020 strategy teachers and other education personnel in every European country should be given the space, tools, support, appropriate salary and decent working conditions to exercise their profession. This includes defining teachers’ working time according to collective agreements in order to eliminate unacceptable high number of working hours including the defined teaching hours and time for other duties eg. administration, consultation, preparation, and research, especially in the context of increased level of digitalisation in the teaching profession. The reinforcement of collective bargaining is essential as the prerequisite to guarantee decent salaries, pensions and decent working conditions for an attractive and rewarding teaching profession.
Read full responseResponse to European Democracy Action Plan
31 Jul 2020
ETUCE welcomes the proposal of the European Democracy Action Plan to strengthen and protect European democracy and ‘to ensure that citizens are able to participate in the democratic system through informed decision-making’. However, the proposal seems to focus more on external threats and ‘unlawful interference and manipulation’ instead of promoting such common values as tolerance, non-discrimination, equality, solidarity, and respect for human dignity and diversity which are the basis for a democratic society in which every citizen’s voice is heard and respected and in which every person feels included. ETUCE believes that the focus of the Action Plan should be rather on promoting these values while taking into account the variety of political, historical, and socio-economic national contexts in Europe, and countering the spread of populism, radicalisation, xenophobia, stereotypes and extremist attacks that are on the rise in today’s Europe. It is also important to address the increasing sense of isolation and disconnection that many people in Europe experience today. The main threat to political systems in Europe is not the external manipulation and interference, but rather citizens’ distrust in governments, socio-economic inequalities, in particular, unequal access to education, poverty, unemployment, social exclusion, and a prevailing individualistic approach at the expense of a collective one.
ETUCE believes that education plays a crucial role in preparing open-minded, critical-thinking, reflective and active citizens who care about their society, the world and environment they live in, and future generations. Education is also key to providing a sense of belonging and opportunities for active participation for all learners, especially for those disadvantaged, marginalised or have special needs. Therefore, while we appreciate the fact that education for active citizenship and media literacy is mentioned in the roadmap of the European Democracy Action Plan, we believe that education should take a much more prominent and multi-dimensional place in the future European strategy on strengthening and promoting democracy. The education system is where both students and teachers can experience democracy first hand.
Even though the roadmap for the European Democracy Action Plan puts forward the support for civil society regarding ‘shaping the agenda and in concrete action’, it omits highlighting the importance of involving social partners in developing and implementing the democratic structures. Social partners play a crucial role in society and at workplaces which governments, authorities and employers must take into account and listen to. The European Democracy Action Plan will remain a mere declaration of ideas unless the European Commission clearly supports the role of social partners in its implementation and monitoring at all levels and in all relevant sectors, including education.
The attached Statement provides ETUCE’s views on the role of education in regard to democratic citizenship and EU common values and important points that should be included in the European Democracy Action Plan.
Read full responseResponse to EU Action Plan of Gender equality and women’s empowerment in external relations for 2021-2025
3 Apr 2020
EU Action Plan of Gender equality and women’s empowerment in external relations for 2021-2025 should follow the key priorities of the EU Gender Equality Strategy as many of inequalities and problematic areas mentioned there are even more problematic and less prioritized in policies in countries outside of the EU.
In particular, it should focus on:
- promoting education as a key element of building a gender equal society and campaigning for raising the status of the teaching profession by increasing education personnel’s salaries and improving their working conditions;
- importance of the inclusion of gender equality in education and the teaching profession in national social dialogue and collective bargaining (in a number of countries outside the EU the social dialogue is under pressure or not well-developed at all, making gender equality not a priority in collective bargaining);
- addressing the impact of right-wing and conservative political discourses and the intensification of poverty and social exclusion on gender equality in countries outside the EU (e.g. elimination of abortion rights, removing sexual education from the curricula);
- addressing deeply-rooted gender stereotypes and sexism in education, as well as in daily lives, publicity and media, in relation to perceptions of women’s and men’s role in the household, caring responsibilities, the labour market and public life (e.g. promote the implementation of Council of Europe Recommendation on preventing and combating sexism; supporting international projects on eliminating gender stereotypes from teaching and learning materials);
- addressing the segregation in study fields for women and men by encouraging men and women to choose traditionally gender-atypical study fields and career paths;
- promoting provision of sufficient and sustainable initial and continuous professional development and up-to-date teaching and learning materials on gender equality for educational personnel, as well as a whole-school environment approach that promotes relationships based on equality and mutual respect between all education actors;
- campaigning for a strong involvement of teachers, academics and other education personnel in the development of education policies and sustainable public investment in education to ensure teachers and teaching material provide the quality required;
- encouraging the enhancement of representation and participation of women in decision-making in all education sectors and research, as well as provision of better opportunities for career progression and professional support for female education personnel, particularly in higher education and vocational education and training;
- attracting attention to the importance of balanced reconciliation of personal and professional lives of working parents and carers, including affordable and accessible public early childhood education and elderly care, models that encourage men to take parental leave, and time models which cater for both male and female teachers at different stages of their lives, and the right to disconnect ;
- addressing the gender pay and pension gaps, including those related to the horizontal segregation in the education sector (e.g. teaching in primary and early childhood education sectors where the majority of education personnel are women, is in many countries undervalued and paid less than other education sectors);
- preventing and tackling gender-based harassment and violence in society and in particular in education (including cyber-bullying and harassment), in particular by promoting the implementation of UN Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and ratification and implementation of Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention) and ILO Convention concerning the Elimination of Violence and Harassment in the World of Work.
Read full responseResponse to EU post-2020 Roma policy
11 Mar 2020
The atttached statement provides ETUCE’s views on the situation of Roma students and teachers, academics and other education personnel, and proposes key points to be included in the EU post-2020 Roma equality and inclusion policy:
ETUCE member organisations have been raising the issues of early school leaving and segregation among Roma students for many years. In the view of achieving UN Sustainable Development Goals and implementing the priorities of the European Pillar of Social Rights inn education and on eliminating poverty, employment, and other key targets, the EU strategy should demand from the EU member states to ensure that all Roma children receive high quality, inclusive, culturally and socially diverse education, including through the use of ICT and new technologies so as to avoid ‘digital discrimination’.
ETUCE underlines the importance of measures explicitly targeting Roma students at every educational stage, with a focus on early-childhood education, including monitoring of the enrolment, attendance and educational outcomes of Roma students. Furthermore, EU Member States should prioritise measures to combat anti-Gypsyism in education by eliminating any form of school or class segregation of Roma, addressing stereotypes, and fighting hate speech and hate crime.
ETUCE highlights the vital role of education and teachers in breaking down the barriers and discrimination which exclude Roma people from full participation in European societies. Therefore, in order to have a successful inclusion of Roma people in education, teachers, academics and other education personnel need professional support, including teacher training on inclusive education (including intercultural pedagogy) and the employment of teaching assistants.
Inclusive educational and whole-school approaches to learning are crucial for retaining Roma people in education system and combating ethnic discrimination and related segregation. These approaches include project- and problem-based learning, community service learning, providing life-long learning opportunities, as well as integrating modules on Roma history and culture in teaching programmes in mainstream education.
It is also crucial to make space for Roma people themselves to lead on inclusive education, either through contributing to the design of educational programmes or by training as teachers and teaching assistants.
A visible, long-term political support and sufficient public financing is required to implement Roma inclusion strategies in education. ETUCE calls for clearer data on public funding in education with a special focus on Roma inclusion, including additional financial and professional support (e.g. covering costs of transportation, school materials, etc.).
Socio-economic and other non-educational factors, including housing, living standards, health and safety, as well as traditional gender roles, have a strong impact on access and participation in education and labour market of Roma people. Therefore, the EU post-2020 Roma equality and inclusion policy have to provide practical and urgent solutions to these challenges, considering that non-discriminatory, quality education and desegregation in education and housing contribute to eliminating the poverty and providing Roma people with attractive job prospects, better job security, benefits and pay.
Education trade unions provide the education professional insight and expertise necessary for a successful implementation of national and European level Roma equality and inclusion strategies. It is crucial that governments and education authorities coordinate and discuss these strategies and their implementation in the education sector with education trade unions. The European Commission and Member States should therefore promote effective social dialogue on Roma equality and inclusion policies in the education sector and on how to build inclusive education systems with education trade unions.
Read full responseMeeting with Phil Hogan (Commissioner)
25 Feb 2020 · Trade Issues
Response to Gender equality in the EU
27 Jan 2020
ETUCE welcomes the high level consultation of social partners on the EU strategy on gender equality, considering that it is a fundamental right enshrined in the international and EU Treaties and legislation. However, the results of the recent survey among education trade unions in Europe shows that gender equality topics and challenges are still to a large extent not addressed in national and European social dialogue in the education sector. Some of the reasons include the lack of financial and organisational resources of trade unions, coupled with the lack of understanding by all social partners that trade unions address in their work both employment and professional issues and contribute strongly to social cohesion and equality in support of human rights that are the basis for a healthy democratic society. Therefore, ETUCE demands from the European Commission a strong EU strategy on gender equality which prioritises education as a key element of building a gender equal society, further supports the inclusion of gender equality in education and the teaching profession in European and national social dialogue and collective bargaining, and mainstreams gender equality topics into other European policies, e.g. the Education and Training Strategy 2030, digital agenda of Europe , EU Strategic Framework on Health and Safety at Work, and EU policy in the field of vocational education and training (VET) .
The attached statement provides ETUCE’s views on the current situation of gender equality in education and the teaching profession in Europe, as well as proposals for priorities and measures to introduce into and/or strengthen the future Commission’s strategy for gender equality. Reconfirming the crucial role of education and teachers in improving gender equality in European societies, ETUCE suggests that the European Commission develops a comprehensive EU strategy for gender equality built on the following priorities:
- Supporting the initiatives of social partners at European and national level to include the gender dimension in the social dialogue in education sector with the view to involve teachers, academics, and other education personnel in the design of education policies and monitoring of their implementation, and to better support them in promoting gender equality in schools.
- Addressing deeply-rooted gender stereotypes in society and in/through education by including gender equality topics, gender-sensitive language and values of mutual respect in the curriculum for children from an early age and providing sufficient and sustainable initial and continuous professional development for education personnel as well as the knowledge and practical tools for other education stakeholders, necessary to promote a gender-sensitive approach in education.
- Preventing and tackling gender-based harassment and violence in society and in particular in education, including cyber-bullying and harassment.
- Further improving work-life balance arrangements, taking into account the impact of digitalisation on working time and the specific challenges of the teaching profession.
- Addressing gender pay and pension gaps as a complex issue interlinked with other gender inequalities, including horizontal and vertical segregation in the labour market and within particular sectors (such as the education sector), work-life balance, precarious and part-time employment, and others.
- Combatting gender segregation in the labour market by raising the status of education sector professionals.
- Enhancing the representation and participation of women in decision-making (in particular, in all education sectors and research).
Read full responseMeeting with Rodrigo Ballester (Cabinet of Commissioner Tibor Navracsics)
8 Jul 2019 · Second European Education Summit
Meeting with Tibor Navracsics (Commissioner)
27 Jun 2018 · high-level meeting on the European Education Area
Meeting with Kilian Gross (Cabinet of Vice-President Günther Oettinger)
8 Jun 2018 · European Schools
Meeting with Themis Christophidou (Director-General Education, Youth, Sport and Culture)
6 Jun 2018 · present ETUCE and discuss post-2020 education strategy and implementation of European Education Area
Meeting with Frans Timmermans (First Vice-President)
15 Nov 2016 · SDG's
Meeting with Rodrigo Ballester (Cabinet of Commissioner Tibor Navracsics)
5 Oct 2016 · Digital skills
Meeting with Marianne Thyssen (Commissioner) and
15 Jul 2016 · Pillar of social rights, posting of workers
Meeting with Tibor Navracsics (Commissioner)
26 May 2015 · Social dialogue in the field of education
Meeting with Julie Fionda (Cabinet of Commissioner Marianne Thyssen) and European Federation of Explosives Engineers
24 Feb 2015 · Skills and social partners engagement