"The European Education Area: A reality for all"
Sixth European Education Summit
Registration
If you'd like to attend the summit in person, please register online.
Registration will not be required to watch the live web streaming.
Topics
The main questions that will guide the discussions at this year’s edition include:
- How can we improve the education and training sectors to the benefit of all?
- How are the EU countries planning to better invest in quality education and training?
- How can we ensure that people are equipped with the necessary skills to thrive in the green and digital transitions?
Policy-makers for EU institutions and from EU countries, as well as key stakeholders of the education and training community from across the EU, will discuss ideas and best practices in answer to these questions and more.
Together, they will bring new perspectives, innovative solutions and creative approaches to help make the European Education Area a reality for all.
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Event agenda
Biography
Sabine Verheyen has been a Member of the European Parliament for the German Christian Democrats (CDU) since 2009. In 2019 she got elected as Chairwoman of the Committee for Culture and Education, after having served as coordinator for the European People`s Party in this committee for five years. She focuses in particular on education and media policy as well as digital agenda issues. As former mayor of Aachen (1999 to 2009) she focuses additionally on issues that are of relevance to the local authorities.
She has been co-rapporteur for the Audio-Visual Media Services Directive and has been a Member of the European Parliament’s annual delegation to the Internet Governance Forum since 2009. Sabine Verheyen studied architecture at FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences.
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Elisa Gambardella was elected President of the Lifelong Learning Platform (LLLP) in 2023, after two years contributing to the work of the Steering Committee of the LLLP and representing it in the Board of Civil Society Europe. Her home organisation is SOLIDAR Foundation, where she is Education and Lifelong Learning Coordinator since 2020, and that she originally joined as Political Adviser in 2018. Elisa has represented SOLIDAR also as a member of the Civil Society Organisations Convention for the Conference on the Future of Europe, and as a member of the plenary of the Conference on the Future of Europe.
Before moving to Brussels, she worked for the Cabinet of the Italian Minister of Labour, where she specialised in active labour market policies for youth employment. Overall, she has 10 years’ experience in public authorities, think-tanks and EU civil society organisations and she holds a master’s degree in European Studies from the Roma Tre University.
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Horia Onița serves as President of the European Students’ Union (ESU), working in the organisation on overarching political priorities (Bologna Process, European elections, Council of Europe Ministerial Conference, etc.), quality assurance of higher education and recognition, learning and teaching policies, micro-credentials, digitalisation and social dimension of higher education.
He represents ESU in positions such as Co-Chair of the Drafting Committee of 2024 Tirana Communique, Co-Chair of the Bologna Follow-Up group on Social Dimension, member of European Quality Assurance Register Board and Bologna Follow-up Group (BFUG) Board.
Horia has been active in the student movement for 9 years, priorly being the president of the National Alliance of Student Organisations in Romania for 2 years.
He holds a Bachelor of Law and Master of Public Procurement degrees from the University of Bucharest.
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Susan Flocken is the European Director of the European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE) and has been working for the organisation in Brussels since 2009.
ETUCE represents 127 education trade unions, i.e.11 million teachers and other education employees at all levels of education in 51 countries of Europe. ETUCE is a Social Partner in education at EU level and a European Trade Union Federation within the European Trade Union Confederation. ETUCE is the European Region of Education International, the global federation of education trade unions.
Promoting a quality teaching profession ETUCE stands up for teachers’ rights, trade union and human rights based on meaningful social dialogue and is an advocator for publicly funded education and access to quality education for all. Susan Flocken engages in ETUCE policy advocacy work with government representatives as well as with European and international institutions across a range of areas: education and training post-2020; European Pillar of Social Rights, equality, social inclusion and democratic citizenship; digitalisation in education; economic governance, promotion of social dialogue and teachers’ working conditions.
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Daniel Wisniewski, PhD MBA – Secretary General of the European Federation of Education Employers (EFEE), expert in education policy, member of various Expert Groups on education and training coordinated by the European Commission and the OECD.
Co-Manager of the European Sectoral Social Dialogue in Education with teacher trade unions, Co-Founder and Manager of the Educational Leadership Network Europe (ELNE).
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Victor Negrescu is a Member of the European Parliament, Vice-President of the Committee on Culture and Education (CULT), being part of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament.
Victor Negrescu has been the rapporteur of the European Parliament for the report on Shaping Digital Education Policy and an active promotor of the allocation of 10% for quality and inclusive education of the National Recovery and Resilience Facilities, as well as 2% to the cultural and creative sector.
In his activity as MEP, he strongly advocates for consistent investments in education, culture, digitalization and youth, by Member States and the European Commission. He is the MEP with the most significant pilot projects, generating in both mandates initiatives that go up to more than 80 million euros in the fields of education, digitalization, health, entrepreneurship, culture and media.
As Romanian Minister Delegate for European Affairs in 2017-2018, Victor Negrescu was responsible for the preparations for the Presidency of the European Council, highlighting consistently the importance of the education and digital sectors for Europe.
Victor Negrescu holds an MBA in executive business, a PhD in development cooperation and has accomplished several education programs in prestigious Romanian and international universities. Since 2012 he is a lecturer at the National School of Political Science and Public Administration (SNSPA). In the same time, he is currently teaching at the University of Saint Louis Brussels.
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He is Full Professor of Roman Private Law and History of Roman Public Law. He has taught at the University of Turin. During his career, he has held several seminars in many foreign international universities. He is enlisted in the Special Register of Lawyers at the Court of Appeal of Milan.
As a Senator of the Italian Parliament, he has been Member of the Commission on Education, University and Research, Member of the Bicameral Commission for Regional Affairs, Vice President of the Bicameral Commission on Childhood and Member of the Constitutional and Internal Affairs Commission.
He is the coordinator of “Lettera 150”, an initiative launched with a manifesto endorsed by over 150 university professors which has elaborated many reform proposals in different sectors, reaffirming the value of scientific knowledge and high competences, critical to defeat crisis and to build a new, more efficient Italy, based on freedom, responsibility and solidarity.
He is the author of several renown publications on Roman Private Law, Roman Public Law, Roman History and Italian Constitutional law. At European level, he has been the Italian delegate in the Horizon Europe Shadow Programme Committee. He is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Journal Iura, the Romanist Journal “SDHI”, and of the Spanish Journal "Seminarios Complutenses de Derecho Romano”. He has been Vice President of the Scientific Committee of the Journal "Federalismo e Libertà" and directs the series "I libri del Federalismo" and the cultural Magazine "Lettera 150".
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Stefan Zotti is team leader in the European Commission/DG EAC, responsible i.a. for the Jean Monnet actions, the Education for Climate Coalition and investment in education policies. Before rejoining the Commission he was Director General of the Austrian Agency for International Cooperation in Education and Research (OeAD-GmbH) and Vicepresident of the Brussels-based Academic Cooperation Association (ACA). Between 2010 and 2013 he served as member of cabinet of Commissioner Johannes Hahn (Regional policy). Stefan holds a PhD in Theology (bioethics) and a master in European Studies.
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Hon. Clifton Grima is the Minister for Education, Sport, Youth, Research and Innovation
Hon. Grima is a lawyer by profession. He graduated as a Doctor of Laws from the University of Malta in 2010 and was elected in Parliament in October 2016. He has served as a Member of the Maltese Parliament ever since. Following the June 2017 General Election, Hon. Grima was entrusted with a Cabinet role as Parliamentary Secretary for Youth, Sport and Voluntary Organizations. In 2021 was appointed as Minister for Education and Sport.
As Minister, Hon. Grima is currently responsible of Malta’s Education sector and Sport industry. He is known for his input in the setting of new strategies aimed at the development of new future-oriented sectors.
Hon. Grima was also responsible for a complete overhaul of the laws regulating the voluntary sector aimed at ensuring more accountability and transparency. As part of the aforementioned goal he set up a national authority dealing with sport governance and integrity and an authority, EquestriMalta, to serve as a regulator for equestrian sport.
With the aim of putting Malta on the world sports map and hosting competitions on an international level Hon. Grima pushed for the development of Malta's sport strategy and the modernization of Malta's sport infrastructure.
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João Costa is Minister of Education in the XXIII Constitutional Government.
He is a Full Professor of Linguistics at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of NOVA University Lisbon. He holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Leiden, Netherlands and he has been a visiting researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.
He graduated in Linguistics from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon.
He has been Secretary of State for Education in the XXI and XXII Constitutional Governments.
Until November 2015 he has been the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, at NOVA University Lisbon.
He has been Chair of the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (Talis).
He was chair of the Scientific Council for the Social Sciences and Humanities of the Foundation for Science and Technology until November 2015.
He has been member of the Scientific Committee of the National Reading Plan, of the National Commission of the International Institute of the Portuguese Language and of the Advisory Council of the Camões Institute.
He has been also Chair of the European Association of Linguistic Students (SOLE) and the Portuguese Linguistic Association.
Besides his teaching and research activities at the University, he has been a guest lecturer at several universities in Brazil, Macau, Spain and the Netherlands.
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Sophia Eriksson Waterschoot is Director for Youth, Education and Erasmus+ at the European Commission's Directorate General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture. She is in charge of European cooperation on higher education, schools and youth policy, including Europe's flagship programmes Erasmus+ and the European Solidarity Corps. She has previously held various positions within the European Commission in the field of strategy and investment in education, labour market policy, European Semester and European cohesion funds. She studied economics, business, political science and EU affairs in Sweden, France and Belgium, including an Erasmus student exchange. She is an Eisenhower Fellow. Twitter: @sophiabrussels
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Dr Igor Papič is a professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the University of Ljubljana. He was Vice Dean for the field of pedagogical work (2011-2013), Dean of the Faculty (2013-2017) and Rector of the University of Ljubljana (2017-2021).
He has led numerous national and international research and development projects. In 2009, together with his partners, he founded one of the first spin-off companies of the University of Ljubljana. He has been invited to lecture at the University of Manitoba, University of Manchester, University of Alberta, Sichuan University, among others.
From 2006 to 2017, Dr Papič was Chair of the Programme Council of the Smart Grid Technology Platform. He is President of the Electrotechnical Association of Slovenia. He was one of the initiators and the first President of the Rectors' Forum of the Universities of South-Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans. In 2020 he was the first President of the EUTOPIA European University Alliance.
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Ligia Deca is the Minister of Education of Romania. Previously, as Presidential Adviser for Education and Research, she coordinated the “Educated Romania” project, which aimed to establish a long-term strategic vision for the national education sector. She is also a University Lecturer at the National University for Political Studies and Public Administration in Bucharest.
She has been awarded a PhD in Political Science by the University of Luxembourg, her research focusing on the internationalization of higher education.
Author of several papers and studies in the field of education policy, approaching topics ranging from the internationalisation of tertiary education to adaptive educational practices in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ligia Deca has also worked as an expert for the Council of Europe, European Commission, EQAR, DAAD and others. In 2014, she was invited to be a member of the ‘Science in Education’ Expert Group set-up by the European Commission. Ligia Deca was also a member of the Fulbright Board of Directors in Romania between 2017 and 2020.
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Tatjana Babrauskiene has been a member of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) since 2015.
She was the EESC rapporteur of several opinions, amongst which: SOC/715 – Higher education package; SOC/684 – Adult learning; SOC/663 – Promoting skills for a more just, cohesive, sustainable, digital and resilient society; SOC/637 - Updated skills agenda; SOC/636 – Towards an EU strategy for enhancing green skills and competences for all; SOC/629 – Sustainable funding for lifelong learning and development of skills, in the context of a shortage of skilled labour.
At the national level, Tatjana is the Head of International relations of the Lithuanian Education and Science Trade Union (LESTU) and an expert of the Lithuanian Trade Union Confederation (LPSK) in VET, CVET and HE. She has long experience in advocating for adult education and LLL at the European level, including as a member of the European Commission's Advisory Committee on Vocational Education and Training (ACVT) and Cedefop. In 2010, when the European Social Dialogue in Education was established, she was appointed Lithuanian delegate of the Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee for the Education sector (ESSDE). She is also a representative of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE) in three European Commission working groups on education: adult learning, VET and school education.
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Silvia Gómez Recio is the first Secretary General of the Young European Research Universities Network (YERUN) since October 2016, when the network opened its Brussels office. She is responsible for the strategic leadership, networking actions and implementation of the network’s strategy and objectives. YERUN is a group of like-minded young research universities in Europe, which strengthen and facilitate cooperation in the areas of research, education, innovation and services that benefit society.