European Trade Union Committee for Education

The European Parliament is fully back to work. Its Committees have been formed anew. One of the first topics they addressed, is the fundamental issue of the European Semester for economic policy coordination: the implementation of 2014 priorities.  In August, the European Parliament Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) issued a Draft Report on the implementation of the European Semester and the Employment Committee of the European Parliament (EMPL) commented on it.

 Both Committees welcomed the recommendations of the European Commission to the countries in the European Semester to priorities and preserve growth-enhancing expenditure in education. This corresponds to the recent ETUCE Position on the 2014-2015 Country Specific Recommendations (CSR), which also denounces the severe under-financing of education in many Member States and demands that any recommendation targeting education and training should go hand in hand with appropriate sustainable public funding, with a stronger focus on quality  education.

The Draft Report of the Committee on Economic Affairs clearly recognise that structural reforms for growth and jobs must be complemented by longer-term investment in education and skills, research and development, and resource efficiency. The report however stresses that in all these fields private investment is more beneficial to growth than public investment.

The ETUCE Secretariat positively notes that the Draft Opinion issued by the Employment Committee clearly denounces that more than 20 Member States have reduced education expenditure as a percentage of GDP, thereby jeopardizing their growth potential. It also criticises the fact that not all the Member States have involved their national social partners in the European Semester process.

Back in July, ETUCE member organisations had addressed a message on Investing on Education, asking European leaders to prioritise investments in education as the only way to increase potential economic growth in Europe and to reduce social inequalities. The message was issued at a time when EU institutions were designing their future strategic priorities, and received positive feedback from both the Italian Presidency of the Council of the EU and from the European Commission.

Following this message, ETUCE member organisations began to lobby their national governments to consider education as one of the main growth-enhancing investments, and to be involved into the various steps of the European Semester.