MEP Victor Negrescu, Vice-Chair of the Committee on Culture and Education and European Student Forum AEGEE-Europe organized in the European Parliament in Brussels the ”Agenda 2024-2029: Education” debate, an event which represented the launch point, in the European press, of a call for a European Plan for Education.

”The future of education is now and we need to act together. We need to boost citizenship education, tackle the skills deficit and define key areas for training and reskilling, but we also need to modernize the education system and learn how to use new technologies to support education, without leaving anyone behind. I call for the creation of a European Education Plan with financial resources to support quality of education and teacher training, and reduce early school drop-out rates. If we are seriously thinking about the future of Europe, then we must think strategically about the future of education”, said Victor Negrescu at the event where participants suggested to the European Commission that the idea of having a Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for European education can give a clear signal.

Moreover, the ideas presented at the event are also reflected in the op-ed that the Vice-President of the Committee on Culture and Education published in the European press and co-signed together with Kirsten Broekema, President of the European Student Forum/ AEGEE-Europe.

”The concept of European education continues to be difficult to approach, despite the fact that it seems to be an easy subject to understand. Education should not be considered a <<small thing>>, in a knowledge society based Union as the one we live in. The connection with European citizenship is obvious, opening the way for a better civic education for which we see a great need in Europe”, highlights the MEP in the op-ed, along with a representative of European students.

Given that education ”massively influences other sectoral policies, the most obvious being research, social inclusion and job creation”, Victor Negrescu and Kirsten Broekema suggest ”launching an an Intergovernmental conference in the spring of 2025 to present the integrated vision of the Member States and the EU on the educational perspective for 2040”.

With the belief that European education must be at the heart of both the agenda of the European institutions and the agenda of the EU Member States, Victor Negrescu has worked hard throughout his mandate in the European legislature, succeeding in obtaining 10% for education in the NRRP.

”Education has been and remains my priority and I am glad to see that through our efforts, today in Romania we have European money for education”, said Negrescu.

Furthermore, he managed to increase the budget for the programmes dedicated to education and youth, including Erasmus+, as well as obtaining additional funding for the European Year of Youth. Furthermore, he promoted and supported the activities of the European Year of Youth and the European Year of Competences, and initiated a pilot project through which more than 100 EU schools received funding for digitisation.

His efforts in this direction were complemented by the inclusion of the proposal to realize a European Education Plan, worth at least €10 billion, in the conclusions of the Conference of the Future of Europe.

Recently, in his capacity as the European Parliament’s chief negotiator for the EU budget for 2025, Victor Negrescu also included this proposal in the European legislature’s budgetary priorities.