Spaans voorzitterschap vindt extra aandacht voor onderwijs succes van eigen voorzitterschap (en)

The Spanish Minister of Education, Ángel Gabilondo. EFE

This Thursday, the Spanish Minister of Education, Ángel Gabilondo, presented the Spanish Presidency's education and training achievements to the European Parliament's Committee on Culture and Education, achievements that are “everybody's success” and “collective”, he said.

In his speech, the Spanish minister emphasised that the “great objective” of the Presidency had been to place education “at the heart of the Europe 2020 Strategy”, since education had not previously figured in the main EU policies.

“We should all congratulate ourselves on achieving this great objective. For the first time, there is a desire at a European level to establish a new link between the economy and education”, said Gabilondo, who also underlined two quantitative achievements of the semester: reducing the school dropout rate to 10% at most, and increasing the percentage of people finishing higher education or equivalent to at least 40%.

The Spanish minister also pointed out other stimulus given to educational issues during the past six months, such as the commitment of all member states to promote key skills acquisition and development at all educational levels, and promoting the international dimension and social responsibility of universities.

In this regard, Gabilondo invited the Belgian and Hungarian Presidencies, as members of the Trio, to work in greater depth no developing the major pillars of the 2020 Strategy.