The Education, Youth, Culture and Sport (EYCS) Council of Ministers of the European Union, chaired by Konstantinos Arvanitopoulos, Minister of Education and Religious Affairs, met in Brussels, on 24 February.

During the meeting Mr Arvanitopoulos stated that:

“We will address the challenge of inadequate skills performance and the high rates of unemployment among young people. We all know that young people have been hit the hardest by the crisis with those with low skills representing the largest share of the unemployment.
One out of five EU workers has low literacy and numeracy skills. Τo meet these challenges we need to accelerate our reform agenda in education and training.

Member states should continue to invest in high quality education and we need to ensure that Europe will take a leadership role in innovative education and training using new technologies and digital content.

The main item on the agenda of the Council was:

• The adoption of the Council conclusions on efficient and innovative education and training, to invest in skills- supporting the European Semester 2014.
• Public policy debate on developing skills and enhancing employability in the light of PIAAC and PISA results.

Also, the Hellenic Presidency proposed to the European Commission to take action for implementing the proposal made by the European Parliament to establish a European Day against bullying and violence.

See also the Council's website