The Ministerial Council on Education, Youth, Culture and Sport (EYCS) (Education & Youth), chaired by Athanasios Kyriazis, Greek Secretary General  for Education and Religious Affairs, met in Brussels today, 20 May 2014.

In the Education session, the Council adopted the following conclusions:

• on effective teacher education,
• on multilingualism and the development of language competencies,
• on quality assurance supporting education and training.

In conjunction with February’s conclusions on “efficient and innovative education and training, to invest in skills-supporting the European Semester 2014”, a coherent framework of initiatives, aimed at improving the quality of education as well as a number of issues that no other presidency until now had adopted, were promoted.

In particular, the Greek Presidency raised the issue of quality assurance in the cross-border higher education programmes, which was discussed in public session. Moreover, the Council examined the strengthening of the role of education in updating the strategy "Europe 2020", as its contribution to Member States’ economic and social development is considerably important.

Finally, during the afternoon session, ministers exchanged views on youth-related matters. The Council adopted conclusions on “promoting youth entrepreneurship to foster social inclusion of young people”.