Presidencies of the EU

In the field of education, the main achievements of the Irish Presidency are:
- First Reading Agreement with the European Parliament on ‘Erasmus+’, the
new European programme for Education, Training, Youth and Sport
- Council Conclusions on ‘Investing in education and training - a response to
Rethinking Education: investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes
and the 2013 Annual Growth Survey
- Council Conclusions on the social dimension of higher education
- Launch of U-Multirank, a new University ranking system

In the field of education and training, the Lithuanian Presidency will focus on the importance of the quality and efficiency of education and training when implementing the Strategic Framework for European Cooperation in Education and Training (ET 2020) and seeking to accomplish the objectives included in the Europe 2020 strategy.
The Presidency will seek to complete the procedures leading to a formal adoption of the new Erasmus + Programme (2014-2020).
In the field of general education and vocational education and training, Lithuania plans to draft and submit to the Council for adoption conclusions that will highlight leadership initiatives in education, factors for the selection of leaders of education institutions, prevention of early drop-out from the education system, as well as the development of entrepreneurship at school.
In the field of vocational training, the Presidency will also discuss issues related to initial vocational education and training in order to ensure the supply of necessary skills to the labour market, and to increase the attractiveness and openness of continuing vocational education and training.
In order to highlight the necessity and the objective of enhancing the quality and competitiveness of European higher education, and in response to the initiative by the European Commission regarding the internationalisation of higher education, Lithuania will continue the discussion on the need to modernise higher education. The Presidency plans to propose adopting the Council conclusions regarding the internationalisation of the EU higher education sector.
Discussions will include ways of promoting partnerships in the field of higher education, including those with the EU’s neighbourhood countries, thereby enhancing research and teaching capacities, and promoting a more active role of universities knowledge transfer, thus increasing the visibility of the EU higher education at the international level.
The Presidency will initiate political discussion within the Council concerning Open Educational Resources and digital learning.