New EAAL is adopted

The EU Council of Education Ministers adopted a motion on a Resolution on the New EAAL 2021–2030. The meeting took place on 29 November 2021 in Brussels under the Slovenian Presidency of the EU Council. This lays the formal foundations for further implementation of the new European strategy in ALE.

The document was drafted at many consultation meetings

At nearly twenty meetings carried out from December 2020 to October 2021, the Slovenian Presidency Group at MESS prepared the draft of the document. Representatives of the SIAE and other public institutions also cooperated in the process. We contributed our expert opinions in drafting the initial document and later in the draft of the Resolution. In spring 2021, we consulted with European and Slovenian stakeholders in ALE. We later met twice with the European Commission and the European Economic and Social Committee, whom we asked for an Exploratory opinion. We consulted with EAEA and the representatives of the countries of our Trio Presidency (Germany and Portugal).

The draft of the Resolution was then discussed five times from July to October at meetings of the European Commission’s Education Committee, where the Member States gave their detailed views. After each Committee meeting, the Slovenian Presidency Group met to assess the comments and incorporate them into the text to the best of their ability. This process was completed on 27 October, after which the Secretariat of the European Commission finalised the Resolution.

Here we publish the adopted text of the EAAL Resolution, which was published in the Official Journal of the EU in January. The Slovenian translation includes the Slovenian terminology, as we suggested it.

Let me bring attention to the website of the conference Adult learning and education – The resilient response to future challenges (8 October 2021), where the final version of the participants’ expert initiatives has been published. They are included in the Declaration on Adult Learning and Education by 2030 in European Union.

The experience was valuable, and the payoff will be far-reaching

I was personally involved in preparing the Resolution, the conference and its Declaration. Although it was quite a lot of work in both cases, the feeling of great satisfaction prevails. It was interesting to co-create such an important policy document that directly affects our work, being that, after a successful first decade, we will have the opportunity to implement it until 2030 (EAAL project). It was a pleasure to work with dedicated MESS representatives, especially Ema Perme, Jasmina Poličnik and Mateja Robič, and MESS attachés in Brussels – Barbara Zupan and Luka Živić. The reactions and praise of our European colleagues, who are satisfied with the overall orientation of the strategy, also evoke positive emotions. The democratic process, which grew on Slovenian foundations and was driven by our proverbial perseverance, has clearly borne good fruit in consultations and negotiations. Now it is up to us to connect them with those for whom they are intended – the learners.

Zvonka Pangerc Pahernik, MSc (zvonka.pangerc@acs.si), SIAE