Drafting the outlines of an agreement as to what extent the educational level in the EU must be raised, bearing in mind the new European situation with regards the 2020 Strategy, is one of the subjects under discussion at the informal meeting of ministers of education, which is being held in Madrid on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The challenge in education is twofold and must be achieved in the next ten years: Reducing the school dropout rate and increasing the number of higher qualifications, at both university level and in vocational training.

The EU ministers will begin to define the objectives of these two challenges in Madrid. Last year, an average of 10% was set as the target for the school dropout rate (the current average is 18%) and 40% for higher qualifications (currently 30%), to be achieved on average across the whole of the European Union by 2020.

José Manuel Martínez Sierra, Director General of International Relations of the Ministry of Education, explained these goals on the eve of the meeting. He said that the question asked by the Spanish Minister of Education, Ángel Gabilondo, to launch the debate with his European counterparts will be whether these figures “are adequate” at this moment in time when the 2020 Strategy envisages education and training as one of its priority goals.

Martínez Sierra explained that the informal meeting will mark the start of this debate, which will be taken up again by the Council of Ministers on 10 May. By that time, ministers will have a joint position which will be made known to the Council of EU Heads of State and Government to be held in June, when the quantitative goals will be formally adopted.

In addition to these two challenges, the informal meeting will also discuss the generation of new European Commission programs with three specific initiatives: Youth in movement; the agenda of new skills for new jobs; and the Union for Innovation.

The ministers intend to examine the promotion of traditional European programs, such as Erasmus, to support these initiatives.

Finally, the Spanish Presidency believes that education and training are essential with regard to a structural emergence from the crisis; it is therefore attempting to promote a more ambitious perspective in allocating resources to education once the 2020 Strategy has been approved.