European Trade Union Committee for Education

The new National Sheets on Education Budgets in Europe: 2014 reveal that 2 out of 3 countries/regions in Europe are increasing their education budget for 2014 by more than 1 % at current prices. Conversely, 7 countries decreased their budgets by more than 1 %. Budgets coming from national, regional, local and EU level are considered. It should be noted, however, that not all budget levels are covered in all countries. Even if the statistics reveal that the education budgets are increasing, the second reading is that the budget differences between the countries are bigger and deeper.

Investment in education is a priority area in the Europe 2020 strategy. However, the lack of recent information on public investment in education in Europe makes it difficult to monitor and discuss this topic, to pinpoint the factors explaining changes to educational investments, and to analyse recent reforms undertaken by countries within their budgetary framework. Therefore, Eurydice has produced the National Sheets on Education Budgets in Europe – 2014, which provide the most recent data on planned education expenditure in European countries.

In total, the Eurydice report covers 34 education systems across 29 European countries – most EU Member States, as well as Iceland, Norway, Montenegro and Turkey. The national sheets present an overview of the education budgets by type of expenditure and level of education. The focus is on the planned expenditure – not actual expenditure. The report provides contextual information and the reasons for changes in the education budgets between 2013 and 2014 are explained. Future updates of the data on national education budgets will allow monitoring changes over longer periods of time.

Read the complete Eurydice report here