Education Council adopts report on the Lisbon agenda
EU education ministers have adopted an interim report on the progress of reforms to education and training systems in Europe in support of the Lisbon agenda. The report, entitled 'Education and training 2010 - the success of the Lisbon strategy hinges on urgent reform,' gives a picture of progress already made in this area, and proposes measures to be taken to achieve further improvements. Ministers agreed to submit the report to the European Council ahead of its meeting on 25 and 26 March. The report suggests that the next steps in education and training policy should be to improve indicators, establish a new generation of programmes for the 2007 to 2013 period, and submit a further interim report in 2006. During the same meeting of the Education, Youth and Culture Council, ministers also debated the establishment of the Europass framework, which aims to facilitate the free movement of workers within the EU by creating a single portfolio for documents relating to diplomas, qualifications and competencies. Delegations agreed that the proposals could make a genuine contribution to enhanced mobility if accompanied by more training and the guarantee of the veracity of the information with the portfolios. Ministers also emphasised that the Europass should have a broad and open scope, reflecting not just academic education and professional training, but also general individual competencies such as computer and technological knowledge.