This is it! Earlier this year, President Juncker invited the institutions to be nine times more ambitious! Juncker declarations follow the political will of a consistent increase of the Erasmus+ budget expressed by several heads of State and government of some Member States such as Belgium, France, Italy. Furthermore, during the Rome Summit on the 60th anniversary of the treaty. Civil society organisations could not sit on the bench. We accepted the challenge and, within the Erasmus+ Coalition, we came up with the idea for a campaign asking 10 times more! During the first phase of the campaign, the Coalition will collect additional statements from key stakeholders and institutions, organisations and individuals in the EU, and will bring them up in the light of a wider range of partners through social media and event communications. In the meanwhile, the Coalition will build evidence on the positive changes that more funding would have on the quality, access, and inclusiveness of the activities for the beneficiaries of the programme. The campaign will be launched in September 2017. The Campaign is coordinated by the Lifelong Learning Platform, the European Youth Forum and Eurodesk. It will run mainly over the internet for the coming months, and it is aimed at positively influencing the outcomes of the next MFF negotiations, due to happen in June 2018. Why 10 times more? More funding can support the following aims: Widening its access for a truly lifelong learning programme: To widen its access to a larger group of beneficiaries from all ages and different education purposes, and to respond to the high demand of smaller organisations and individual citizens that struggle to access and be successful in the current programme. Strengthen its social dimension for better inclusion: To increase Erasmus+ outreach and support to the most vulnerable and marginalised groups, thus addressing the needs of all learners and their diverse backgrounds and aptitudes, including people with disabilities and from disadvantaged socio-economic background. Empowerment of citizens through education: To contribute to societal progress by promoting shared civic values and active citizenship through mobility, volunteering and cooperation projects. Competitiveness and employment: To support the economic growth and employability providing opportunities to acquire and recognise basic and transversal skills, competences and knowledge Quality mobility experience and projects: To improve the quality of learning mobility experiences and transnational partnerships by providing the necessary funding and tools to beneficiaries. Effective management and evaluation: To increase the programme’s flexibility and effectiveness to meet the needs of beneficiaries, while modernising methodologies and processes. Peer Learning, Capacity Building and Exchange: To support cooperation among Member States and education stakeholders that will contribute to the modernisation of education and lifelong learning systems through peer learning and capacity-building facilitating policy reforms in line with Member States’ needs. Cross-sector and multilevel cooperation: To strengthen the support to civil society organisations as intermediaries between the European and grassroots levels as a way to ease citizens’ access to the opportunities offered by the Programme, and to encourage partnerships with other stakeholders active in the field of education, training, youth and sport. Education as a driver for Sustainable Development Goals: To raise awareness and enhance the implementation of the SDGs in Europe using education as the most powerful and proven vehicle for sustainable development thus making lifelong learning a reality for all. Internationalising education and lifelong learning systems: To reinforce the global dimension of the programme and the internationalisation of education institutions and different learning environments in order to build bridges with societies and economies across the globe and therefore being more competitive and resilient in a globalised world. Do you want to learn more about this Campaign, and find the way to be active in it? Check out the brand new website and stay up-to-date on the next steps! If you wish to actively support the Campaign, contact us!

The Annual Conference 2017 took place on 31 May and 1 June in Tallinn, Estonia. This year’s topic is “Education in a digital world. Reducing inequalities through lifelong learning”. The challenge of education in a digital world commands us to open education as widely as possible to include all, through flexible pathways and innovative thinking in order to enable all to adapt to yet unknown developments. The two days in Tallinn have brought us vibrant inputs, valuable contributions and have opened our minds on the main topics (and beyond). This is why we are happy to share the report of the conference, including all the interventions from the speakers. Re-live with us the magic days in Tallinn, and download the whole report here !

Recently, Eurostat compiled an informed study on how much of their GDP EU countries destine to education, in all of its forms. The study refers to expenditures in 2015, and data are somehow very low. But they made us wonder: what’s the trend throughout the years? We have compared the same study that Eurostat publishes regularly, and found out what we feared: Member States are decreasing their share of budget, diminishing the support to education. 2009 – 2013 This early report from Eurostat helps us set the context. In 2009 the average EU budget for education was 5.5% . It then decreased to 5.4% in 2010 and to 5.3% in 2011. In 2012 it went further down to 5.2% of the total national GDP, while in 2013 it stagnated. Public expenditures in education as percentage of GDP in EU Member States, 2012 2014 In 2014, Juncker’s Commission settled in. The new President proclaimed that education would be a vital part of their European programme, and stated that MS could be convinced – in times of crisis – to invest in the social dimension. However, the correspondant Eurostat study shows that, at that time, the EU average was 5.1% . The highest public spending on education relative to GDP among the EU Member States was observed in Sweden (7.1 %), followed by Finland (6.8 %), while relatively high ratios were also recorded among the northern EFTA members of Iceland (7.0 %) and Norway (6.7 %) — see image below. Aside from Sweden and Finland, most of the Member States reported ratios of public expenditure on education relative to GDP that were between 3.5 % and 6.0 %, with only Romania below this range and Belgium, Cyprus and Malta above it. Public expenditures in education as percentage of GDP in EU Member States, 2014 2015 In 2015, the last available year, over €716 billion of general government expenditure was spent by the Member States on education. This expenditure is equivalent to 4.9% of the EU’s GDP . ‘Education’ is the fourth largest item of public expenditure, after ‘social protection’ (19.2%), ‘health’ (7.2%) and ‘general public services’ such as external affairs and public debt transactions (6.2%). In 2015, the ratio to GDP of government expenditure for education varied by more than one to two across the EU Member States. Overall, 18 of the 28 Member States recorded a ratio of 5% or more. Which, despite its apparent positive impact, tells us that weaker countries are being left behind. At the lower end was Romania (3.1%), followed by Ireland (3.7%), Bulgaria and Italy (both 4.0%), Spain (4.1%), Germany and Slovakia (both 4.2%) as well as Greece (4.3%). In contrast, Denmark (7.0%) spent the most in relative terms, ahead of Sweden (6.5%), Belgium (6.4%), Finland (6.2%), Estonia (6.1%), Latvia and Portugal (both 6.0%). Public expenditures in education as percentage of GDP in EU Member States, 2015 Finally, a useful comparison: let’s check how much of their internal budget MS allocate to other sectors in the other Eurostat studies: General government expenditure on defence General government expenditure on recreation, culture and religion General government expenditure on public order and safety General government expenditure on health Conclusion To sum up, the average expenditures on education decreased constantly from a share of 5.5% of GDP in 2009 to only 4.9% in 2015, despite the proclaims of the European Commission and national governments. We’re talking in 11% of disinvestment since 2009. This trend is extremely worrying and the shrinking of funding undermines education in all of its sectors and forms. Furthermore, it reflects the increasing privatisation of education in our continent, that will eventually enlarge the economic and social cleavage in Europe. The Lifelong Learning Platform strongly opposes the voluntarily dismantling of public education and the increasing tendency to treat education like a marketable good: we will not stop asking the European institutions to increase their expenditures in education at European, national and local level.

The European Commission has published the annual Erasmus+ work programme for 2018 . The Lifelong Learning Platform welcomes the increase in the budget for the Key Action 1 “Learning mobility of individuals” and for the Key Action 2 “Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices” in 2018. However, we regretfully remark that no further increase has been proposed for the Key Action 3 “Support for policy reform”.A further concern is that the efforts invested in implementing and upscaling the Programme appear exclusively directed towards national and internal actions, beyond mobility scopes. The strengthening of KA1 and KA2 builds up on the decentralisation of the Programme towards the national level and represents a strong concern for European NGOs, as already anticipated by the Erasmus+ Coalition in its Joint Contribution .

Within the framework of the Lifelong Learning Interest Group of the European Parliament, the Lifelong Learning Platform (LLLP) and the European Association of the Education of adults (EAEA) organised a seminar on “The role of education on promoting and strengthening citizen’s rights”. This event brought together civil society organisations of different interests and sectors, and the European institutions – represented by several MEPs and representative of the European Commission namely DG Education, Youth, Sport and Culture. The aim of the event was to understand how different stakeholders approach education as a main driving force to foster and promote citizens’ rights across Europe. Many EU citizens still face problems when exercising the rights derived from their status. Therefore, the event highlighted the need to continue our efforts to make sure that all EU citizens know their rights, and the mechanisms of their implementation, so that they can fully participate in the European democratic process. In the opening session MEP Krystyna Łybacka and Brikena Xhomaqi, Director of the LLLP, set the scene reminding participants how key education is in fostering democratic and civic participation at all levels as well as in promoting shared values on a daily basis. However, this requires the use of methodologies that involve learners actively in their own learning creating a space for practicing democracy at all learning environments. Subsequently, MEP Svetoslav Hristov Malinov highlighted that nowadays younger generations do not know their rights and take them for granted, which is a litmus test to understand how far Europe has gone. Marta Markowska from the European Commission outlined the main initiatives of DG EAC to strengthen citizens’ rights, and presented the preliminary results of the EU Public consultation on the “Recommendation on Promoting social inclusion and shared values through formal and non-formal learning” which showed that most of respondents think education should do more. Many questions were asked on the different tools that were put forward, as the discussion moved to more substantial matters. Participants in this panel – Assya Kavrakova from the European Citizens, Gina Ebner from the EAEA – highlighted the importance of the education and involvement of adults in order to shape communities at the local level. In particular, a lot of emphasis was given to the Erasmus+ Programme, as one of the flagship programmes of the European Union and the only one that supports and promotes shared values through formal, non-formal and informal learning. MEP María Teresa Giménez Barbat concluded the panel discussion stressing that today EU citizens are aware of their rights: what is lacking is a robust supervision on the implementation level. The second panel brought to the debate the perspective of students – with the presentation by AEGEE – and the non-formal sector – with EUNET. MEP Lidiah Nì Riada drew attention to the fact that education not only fosters citizens’ rights, but also promotes the democratisation of our societies, as it forms the generations of tomorrow informed with today’s values. Hence, the importance of empowering teachers and trainers to help them deliver the best education. As Thomas Heckeberg from EUNET stated, teachers are fundamental actors in that they should not only teach learners about their rights, but also how Europe got to design those rights as the basis for its society. This is why civil society is asking for a structural reinforcement of the Europe for Citizens programme: with an increase of only one euro per citizen, many of the target goals can become a reality. Using role models from Sport and Cultural sector was also mentioned as a good practice to motivate citizens to become active. MEP Krystyna Łybacka concluded the seminar by expressing her desire to see “ambassadors” of citizenship, such as sportsmen and sportswomen around the globe: younger generations look up to their idols, and follow their role model. Overall, the seminar was a fruitful occasion to bring together key actors in both the education and the citizenship sectors. A complete report of the event will be made available in the coming days. To learn more about the Lifelong Learning Interest Group, please contact the Lifelong Learning Platform.

The European Commission has opened a public consultation on the “Recommendation on Promoting social inclusion and shared values through formal and non-formal learning”. The online questionnaire will gauge public opinion on the importance of equipping young people with shared values and how education and non-formal learning can help achieve this aim in view of creating more socially cohesive societies. The results of the public consultation will be used together with the other data and research evidence, as well as ET 2020 mutual learning outcomes (in particular the work undertaken by the ET 2020 Working Group on the follow-up of the Paris Declaration ). Deadline: 11 August 2017.

Do you have a great idea for an innovative European Project on tackling challenges related to the professional development of teachers and trainers? Does it align with the recent EU communication on “School Development and Excellent Teaching for a Great Start in Life” ? Whether it is in higher education, school or vocational education and training, adult education, youth or sports, get ready to develop your Erasmus+ project proposal and benefit from EU funding. Let’s shape the Teachers and Trainers of Tomorrow! Pin down Thursday 30 November and Friday 1 December 2017 in your calendar! You will get a unique insight into the Commission’s new priority on professional development in the 2018 Erasmus+ programmes and meet European partners for your project idea. Build your European consortium for the upcoming calls for proposals related to the professional development of teachers and trainers:Erasmus+ Key Action 2: Innovation and Good Practices Erasmus+ Key Action 3: Policy reforms Erasmus+ Sport How does it work? Find European partners for your next project on tackling skills challenges! Do you want to submit a proposal as a project leader? Please fill in the form by 15 September 2017. This form should only be completed by potential project promoters who have a clear project idea and who are willing to act as a project leader under Erasmus+ KA2, KA3 or Sport calls. You will be notified in the second half of September 2017 whether your project idea has been selected to participate in the project development workshop*, and by the end of September we will distribute the best project ideas among potential partners. Interested partners will be able to sign up for the project development workshop until October 23rd, and project leaders will select themselves the best partners for their project. An e-confirmation of participation will be sent later in October. To warm up, you can participate in an afternoon seminar and cocktail reception on Thursday 30 November . During the evening networking cocktail you will have the opportunity to exchange your views with experts on education and policy officers of the European Commission, as well as to network with potential partners. Please note that the ReSET group does not cover travel or accommodation expenses. On Friday 1 December , project leaders will prepare and lead their own workshop, presenting their ideas in roundtables with the partners that they will have selected beforehand. Still unsure about what will happen? Check out last year’s PDW in our presentation video! This event is a co-organisation of the Representation of the State of Baden-Württemberg to the EU , EARLALL , the Liaison agency Flanders-Europe (vleva) , the West-Finland European Office , South Denmark European Office , Central Denmark EU Office , and the Lifelong Learning Platform . Both the cocktail reception and the workshops will take place in Brussels. Get ideas for your project! The knowledge, skills and attitudes of each of Europe’s 6 million teachers are of great importance. The quality of their teaching has a direct effect upon learners’ attainment.The demands made on teachers, school leaders, and teacher educators are increasing and changing. They are called on to play a key role in modernising education. To do that, they need to develop their own competences. Initial education and continuous professional development of the highest quality, and access to support throughout their careers are both essential. Read more about what the Commission has been doing so far (as well as the advice of Cedefop for VET teachers ) Topic The main topic of the PDW will be professional development of teachers and trainers in all educational sectors (early childhood education, school education, VET, higher education, adult education) and training. Sub-topics Strengthening the profile of the teaching profession and making their career more attractive Diversity and inclusion in the classroom and promoting citizenship and common fundamental values Promotion of high-quality and innovative teaching in all educational sectors and training Strengthening distributed leadership at school and teacher leadership for learning …any other fitting into the priorities! Questions? Contact the ReSET PDW Task Force – pdwtaskforce@gmail.com   Karen Vandersickel – Liaison agency Flanders-Europe karen.vandersickel@vleva.eu Hanne De Roo – Liaison Agency Flanders-Europe hanne.deroo@vleva.eu Ulrike Conrad – Representation of the State of Baden-Württemberg to the EU ulrike.conrad@bruessel.bwl.de Jugatx Ortiz – EARLALL earlall@earlall.eu Anne-Maria Mäkelä – West Finland European Office anne-maria.makela@westfinland.be Julie Sand Jørgensen – Central Denmark EU Office jsj@centraldenmark.eu Henriette Hansen – South Denmark European Office hha@southdenmark.be Ulla-Alexandra Mattl – Lifelong Learning Platform ulla-alexandra.mattl@lllplatform.eu

The priorities of the Estonian presidency build on the European Council’s strategic agenda and common goals formulated by the member states and the EU institutions in the Rome declaration on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Rome Treaties. The Estonian presidency will focus on preserving the common values of prosperity, security, peace and stability in Europe. It will seek to maintain Europe’s unity through practical decisions. During the next 6 months, the presidency will focus on four key areas: an open and innovative European economy a safe and secure Europe a digital Europe and free movement of data an inclusive and sustainable Europe Find out more in the full programme

Brikena Xhomaqi, Director of the Lifelong Learning Platform, participated as Member of the Jury in the ceremony for the Eurodesk Awards 2017. The ceremony awarded the following projects: EURODESK NETWORK PRIZE WINNER: IMAGINE: Migrant Journeys, System andGeneration Association, Turkey= Marita, as board member replacing Reinhard, gave the Awards EURODESK MOBILITY AWARENESS PRIZE WINNER: International Blind Dates, Regional Youth Info Centre Rijeka, Croatia= Safi Sabuni, as jury member, gave the Awards EURODESK ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP PRIZE WINNER: Green Agent – Eurodesk Verbania, Italy= Michail, as jury member, gave the Awards EURODESK SOLIDARITY ACTIONS PRIZE WINNER: Breaking Stereotypes, Association Co-Efficient, Budapest, Hungary= Brikena, as jury member, gave the Awards

The Lifelong Learning Annual Conference was held on May 31 and June 1 in Tallinn, Estonia. The event focused on the innovations that the digital world has brought to education, and whether these are contributing (or not) to reducing inequalities all over Europe. The Conference took at the crossroads between the Maltese and Estonian Presidencies of the Council of the EU. Because Malta’s main axis of reflection during its Presidency is Inclusive education and Estonia will focus on Digital Education, the LLLPlatform hopes that the topic chosen will serve each one’s purposes, smoothly linking them together. What’s more, this topic also reflects the European Union Agenda, namely the launch of the Digital Skills for Jobs Coalition under the New Skills Agenda for Europe adopted in 2016. On the first day, participants gathered at the Teachers’ House in Old Town Tallinn, to seize a piece of history in the main squadre of the city centre. Here interventions from the Maltese and the Estonian representations gave guests and intriguing overview of the respective programmes with the regards to the EU Council Presidencies. The keynote speech from Dr Mart Laanpere managed to capture everyone’s attention on how technology can serve educational systems. A cocktail reception ended the afternoon. DSC_0688 On the next day, participants visited Tallinn University. Keynote speeches were given by EU officials, fostering the understanding of EU actions on the main topics of discussion. When the break-out sessions started, everyone could choose an interactive, dynamic way of learning about the core question of the conference “is digitalisation of education reducing inequalities?”. Next to the Digital Fair, the Digital FishBowl was possibly the most interesting and surprising part of the whole event. The active participation of all guests came as fuel to the debate, when different perspectives lifted the discussion to a comprehensive new level. Here is the digital #FishBowl: a new perspective for Lifelong Learning #LLLPAC17 pic.twitter.com/FjosIqrDHX — LLLPlatform (@lllplatform) June 1, 2017 The Annual Conference was a rewarding moment where we all had the chance to share common points of view and learn from new perspectives. We lived many profitable and joyful moments, so please find here all the photos from those two days, as well as all the presentations of the speakers and the inspiring video from Professor Policastro. The LLLP Team would like to warmly thank all participants for coming to our Annual Conference, for their unmatchable interest in our activities and for the wholehearted commitment to the values of the Platform.

The Lifelong Learning General Assembly was held in Tallin on 2 June 2017. The Platform is growing very fast and its importance with it. However, a lot of work is ahead of us to save education & training from austerity measures undertaken at different levels in Europe. We have a big challenge ahead to make the Erasmus+ Programme even greater. During the General Assembly, the future of the Platform was discussed and, with it, both the new structure of the Steering Committee and the membership situation in the organisation. Following the elections, the LLLP is happy to announce that it has now 3 new Steering Committee members, 2 new members and one membership status change. You find below the details: Steering Committee o Outgoing Andras Szucs (EDEN) Daniele Di Mitri (OBESSU) Brian Jurczik-Arnold (EEE-YFU) resigned o Remaining David López (SOLIDAR) Gina Ebner (EAEA) Eszter Salamon (EPA) Mare Oje (EUROCLIO) Jean-Marie Dujardin (EUCEN) o New Giuseppina Tucci (OBESSU) Joanna Pankowska (AEGEE) Luis Costa (EfVET) reelected New members o EVBB – European Association of Institutes for Vocational Training o ATEE – European Association of Teachers’ Education Status change o The World Organisation of Scout Movement (WOSM) is now officially a full member of the LLLP Congratulations to all new members of the Platform and Steering Committee for joining the LLLP family. We look forward to work and raise our voice together. A big thank you goes to outgoing Steering Committee members who have been supporting the work of the platform in the last three years. Thank you Andras, Daniele and Brian for your commitment and hard work.

Belgium: Lifelong Learning Platform partners up with the Chair of the CULT committee in the European Parliament MEP Kammerevert for Erasmus+ The Chair of CULT committee and the Lifelong Learning Platform confirmed their commitment to Erasmus+ widening access to all and more funding during their meeting on June 7. The European Civil Society for Education with its over 40 member organisations representing the biggest beneficiairies of the Erasmus+ programme got together to discuss the current mid-term evaluation and its future. The importance of the programme was stressed out and as such the need to widen access to all learners and not exclusively to students in higher education. This requires additional funding to respond to the increasing demand. The LLLPlatform welcomes such commitment and intends to work closely with the Member of the European Parliament to ask for better and increased funding for the European flagship project. Following the launch of the European Commission recommendation on the European Pillar of Social Rights which states in its first key principle that everyone has the right to quality and inclusive education, training and life-long learning, supports our commitment to make this happen. We will work together in the coming months to best support the European Commission, Programme Committee and Members States in the preparation of the discussions on the future of the programme expected for beginning of 2018. To help us represent the views of civil society please take 10 minutes to fill out our Erasmus+ Annual Implementation Survey. For more read our statement on the White Paper “The Future of Europe is a Learning Europe” and reaction to the European Pillar of Social Rights “Education and lifelong learning priority action for the European of Social Rights”. Follow us on twitter and share your views by using the hashtags: #Erasmusx10 #EplusFuture BRUSSELS, JUNE 7, 2017 – EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, MEMBERS’ BAR