Ministry
of Education,
Youth
and Sports

The High Level Group is a non-public platform that brings together Directors General from the 27 EU Member States responsible for European cooperation in education. The upcoming Presidency traditionally hosts this meeting one month before the Presidency starts. The aim is to discuss, on an informal basis, the strategic issues of the development of European Cooperation in education and training, in particular the role of education in the Europe-wide Lisbon Strategy.

The pre-Christmas meeting in Prague will be of key importance, because it will be the first opportunity for the participants to discuss the European Commission’s proposal for EU cooperation in education after 2010. Although there has been a debate on this issue for almost two years, this time the discussion will be based on a concrete proposal whose compromise version is expected to be adopted under the Czech Presidency, in May 2009.

The discussion of the representatives of the Member States will focus on the role of education in the Lisbon Strategy, on specific lifelong learning objectives and on benchmarks the Member States should meet by 2020. The discussion will, therefore, centre on the development of further education and put an emphasis on creativity, innovation and openness of education systems.