It was the first time that the Education, Youth, Culture and Sports Council held a meeting in Brussels during the Hungarian EU Presidency. The meeting focused on the role of education in achieving the objectives set by the community for the period till 2020. Said meeting was presided over by Rózsa Hoffman, state secretary responsible for education of the Ministry of National Resources of Hungary.

In the press conference following the meeting of the Council, Rózsa Hoffmann emphasized the utmost significance of education and training in achieving the objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy.

The state secretary said that the participants of the meeting attended by Androulla Vassiliou, EU Commissioner for education as well in addition to the 18 ministers responsible for the professional field, had discussed the establishments of the annual progress report regarding education and training and worded the most significant messages of the sector. In addition, through adopting council consequences, the participants identified the challenges in the field of cooperation as well as the steps to be taken both on national and on European level.

Rózsa Hoffmann pointed out the launch of efficient and target oriented educational investments, the improvement of the situation of young people facing difficulties on the labor market as well as the provision of the opportunity of lifetime learning. Furthermore, she designated as important the adjustment of the education and training system to the social and cultural challenges of the global world.

She emphasized that the ministers of the member states of the European Union responsible for education agreed that in addition to short-term measures aimed at recovering from the international economic crisis the grounding of long-term growth was also necessary. Therefore, measures related to education and training are to be supported in the future as well and the expenditures of developing human resources have to be kept on their current level.

In the semester of the Hungarian Presidency the field of education is to be given a primary role.

(State Secretariat responsible for Education)