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Reply to Recommendation | Doc. 13375 | 18 December 2013
Young Europeans: an urgent educational challenge
1. The Committee of Ministers has carefully
considered Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 2014 (2013) on
“Young Europeans: an urgent educational challenge” and has brought
it to the attention of member States’ governments. It has also forwarded
it to the relevant intergovernmental bodies for information and possible
comments. 
2. The Committee of Ministers believes that education – both
formal and informal – plays an essential part in preparing young
people for democratic citizenship, integration into the world of
work and life in multicultural democratic societies. Within the
framework of the 2014-2015 biennium, the Secretary General is proposing
to introduce programmes designed to support member States in their
efforts to ensure the integration of young people into society and
enable them to acquire, in all educational contexts, formal and
non-formal, the competences needed for engaging in active citizenship,
based on European values. In particular, this area of action includes
the development of model guidelines designed to develop such competences.
In this context, consideration will be given to possibilities for
undertaking further work along the lines of the Assembly’s proposals
concerning the definition of principles for the recognition and
validation of non-formal education, the collection of good practices
and the development of policy guidelines relating to the points
set out in paragraph 1.2. However, in view of the current budgetary
constraints which require substantial savings, it is not possible
to undertake activities which go beyond the priorities identified
for the next biennium, such as the one proposed by the Assembly
in paragraph 2.
3. It should be recalled that the Council of Europe’s activities
aiming to further the fair recognition of qualifications are rooted
in the Council of Europe/UNESCO Convention on the Recognition of
Qualifications concerning Higher Education in the European Region
(Lisbon Convention, ETS 165), which covers both formal and – in
Article IV.8 – non-traditional qualifications. They also draw on
the principles developed more recently through the framework of
qualifications of the European Higher Education Area, the European
Qualifications Framework for lifelong learning and compatible national
qualifications frameworks.
4. At the same time, the Committee of Ministers shares the concern
of the Parliamentary Assembly as regards early school dropout and
violence at school. In this context, it would underline that Recommendation CM/Rec(2012)13
on ensuring quality education seeks to address these worrying trends.
Quality education, amongst other things, implies providing a secure
and non-violent learning environment in which the rights of all are
respected. The recommendation also stresses that quality education
means inclusive education, offering good opportunities to all, and
encouraging pupils and students to complete the educational programmes
in which they enrol. Close co-operation is planned with the member
States in the coming years in order to develop, as appropriate,
the policies and practices needed for implementing the principles
of quality education.