Chapter 26: Education and Culture

Education, youth, sport and cultural policies are primarily the competence of the Member States, whereas the EU envisages to promote cooperation within the framework of common policies such as increasing the quality of education, educational attainment, employability, cultural dialogue, preserving the cultural richness, common cultural heritage and to strengthen and support cooperation activities between member states. A cooperation framework on education and training policies aims to converge national policies and the attainment of shared objectives through an open method of coordination , which led to the “Education and Training 2010 ” program, which integrates all actions in the fields of education and training at European level.

As regards cultural diversity, Member States need to ensure that their international commitments allow for preserving and promoting cultural diversity. Member States need to have the legal, administrative and financial framework and necessary implementing capacity in place to ensure sound financial management of the education, training and youth Community programmes (currently Leonardo da Vinci, Socrates, Youth).