Shaping the European Education Area: Our Policy Priorities

Bridging grassroots family realities with EU policy-making for a truly inclusive, whole-community educational ecosystem.

As the European Commission advances the European Education Area (EEA) and the upcoming Education Package under the Union of Skills framework, the European Parents’ Association acts as a vital institutional bridge between macro-level European policymaking and the micro-level realities of families across Europe.

Our Policy Pillars & Constructive Stance

While high-level European frameworks set essential strategic directions, sustainable educational transformation cannot succeed through top-down mandates alone. Across our European network, our grassroots insights reveal that legacy structural barriers and administrative pressures often pull in the opposite direction.

As a critical yet constructive partner, EPA is actively engaged in shaping these legislative files to ensure they deliver genuine, ground-level impact. Our advocacy focuses on core structural pillars:

  • Foundational & Basic Skills: True basic skills recovery cannot be achieved through narrow, reductionist academic metrics or by looking at schools in isolation. Because optimal cognitive development and literacy are rooted in early childhood neurobiology, we advocate for holistic learning environments, early childhood screen-free baselines, and cross-sectoral family support that truly empower parents in their unequalled role as primary co-educators.
  • Teachers & Trainers Agenda: Teacher burnout and shortages cannot be solved by teachers carrying the burden alone; reinstating the overall attractiveness of the profession is a shared societal responsibility. We a.o. champion collaborative whole-community governance models (“democratic school governance”), fully funded continuing professional development within working hours, and diversified staff profiles to bridge the home-school gap.
  • Digital Well-Being & AI Ethics: Digital transformation must serve human well-being rather than compromise it. We champion offline-first early years pedagogy, strict data privacy protections, and co-designed school-home digital agreements that ensure technology acts as a deliberate complement to – rather than a substitute for – human connection and critical thinking.
  • VET Attractiveness & Equity: Overcoming systemic skills shortages requires tackling the deep-seated parental perception gaps that push families toward academic default tracks. We advocate for targeted outreach that highlights vocational education and training (VET) as high-value, future-proof pathways.
  • Safeguarding Civil Society & Funding: Top-down edicts ultimately stall without vibrant grassroots action. Protecting and expanding structural Erasmus+ and MFF budgets is essential to provide civil society organizations and local parent communities with the operational backbone needed to modernize education ecosystems from within.

EPA goes beyond traditional advocacy. Through our active participation in major EU-funded research consortia, we co-create and test evidence-based solutions. Through our upcoming initiatives like the Parent Academy, we provide structured, community-based capacity building to turn European policy targets into lived realities for every family.

Institutional Timeline & EPA’s Strategic Engagement

  • March 2024 Context: The upcoming Education Package builds upon the European Commission’s earlier Higher Education Package, which focused on cross-border academic cooperation, quality assurance, sustainable careers, and the blueprint for a voluntary European degree.
  • Call for Evidence: Earlier this year, the European Commission launched an official Call for Evidence to gather broad public and stakeholder input for the new package.
  • High-Level Dialogue: EPA engaged directly with DG EAC at the highest institutional level, and submitted comprehensive written policy recommendations at the Commission’s request. Furthermore, we actively co-shaped civil society input alongside key European partners, including the Lifelong Learning Platform (LLLP).

Looking Ahead

  • Expected Announcement: The European Commission is scheduled to officially present the new Education Package in November 2026.
  • Post-November Advocacy & Implementation: The November 2026 announcement marks the beginning of the next phase rather than the end. Depending on the legal instruments utilized (whether strategic communications, Council recommendations, or legislative proposals), EPA’s advocacy will shift from consultation input to active monitoring and stakeholder pressure. We will engage directly with European Parliament (CULT Committee) and Council stakeholders to prevent the dilution of parental priorities, empower our national member associations to drive local reforms, and deploy our EU-funded project outcomes and upcoming initiatives such as the Parent Academy as living proof of how European targets can be implemented on the ground.