The EU has given itself the ambitious target to modernize the education systems of its member states, also to increase competitiveness and enhance employability, by 2010. These improvements, known as the Lisbon Process, should bear equally promising fruits in Southeast Europe through the SEE Education Reform Initiative, launched under the auspices of the Stability Pact Task Force Education and Youth. Its aim is to extend the benefits of common European standards in education also to SEE and to better integrate countries from South Eastern Europe into the evolving "European Area of Education".

The Memorandum was signed in the margins of the EU Education Ministers Conference, on 28 June in Nicosia (Cyprus), in presence of the current Greek EU-Presidency and the Stability Pact. Ministers of Education of 4 countries from South Eastern Europe (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, FYR Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro) signed the initiative, demonstrating the regional impact the Initiative will have. Other Ministers have already signalled their intention to sign the Memorandum, which is open for signature to all SEE countries.

As part of an Action Plan for implementing the Education Reform Initiative, ministries from the region have identified 9 priority areas for education development and reform. These are fully in line with the three strategic goals of the European Commission for the "Detailed Work Programme on the Follow-up of the Objectives of Education and Training Systems in Europe". Similar to the EU country's open method of co-ordination, all participating SEE countries will develop relevant indicators and benchmarks, in order to be able to monitor and assess reform progress made. The SEE countries identified the following priority areas for education development and reform: Adjustment and review of existing national legal frameworks in line with ongoing European developments and national reform priorities; decentralisation of education management and administration; development of education management information systems and quality assurance mechanisms; curriculum reform in line with European developments; widening access to quality education and ensuring equal opportunities for national minorities and other less advantaged groups; ensuring access to and effective use of information and communication technologies; development of opportunities for lifelong learning as key means to stimulate economic regeneration in the region; vocational education and training, especially establishing better links between education and the labour market.

The initiative is designed to be flexible vis-à-vis the individual path for reform implementation of the participating countries. A target date, however, is the year 2010, when both the objectives of the EU Detailed Work Programme and the SEE Education Reform Initiative should be achieved. Adhering to the idea of regional ownership, the overall co-ordination of the Initiative is envisaged to be transferred to the region by the beginning of 2004, through the establishment of a regional co-ordination office. The Memorandum signed today highlighted the role of the Stability Pact Task Force on Education and Youth as an interface between ongoing SEE national education reforms and wider European developments.

Further Links:

Memorandum of Understanding

Action Plan