Finland will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union for the third time, starting on the 1^st July 2019 until 31st December 2019. Ahead of the starting date, Finland’s Programme has been published today, focusing on “Sustainable Europe – Sustainable future”. This Presidency follows the Trio of Presidencies started by Romania and which will be finished by Croatia (1^st January 2020 – 30^th June 2020).  The joint programme for the entire 18 month period of the ‘Trio Presidency’’ can be found here. The focus areas of the Trio Programme prepared by Romania, Finland and Croatia, include common EU values, sustainable growth and strengthening external capabilities, safety and security.

The Finnish Presidency. Welling and skills: the foundation of inclusive growth

The Finnish presidency has included as one of their aims is to have a competitive Europe and in order to do so, their “emphasis must be on taking full advantage of research, development, innovation and digitalisation. By fostering skills, education and training, regional and social fairness, and gender equality, the EU will create sustainable growth and wellbeing for its citizens’, as it’s mention at the Programme. Even more, Finnish emphasises the role of  “the EU’s social policies” as “they are key to increasing the availability of skilled workers in the single market”.

Main aims:

• Make European education, training and research the best in the world

• The EU needs a future-oriented, wide-ranging strategy for continuous learning that takes into account the transformation of work and digitalisation

• Increase the availability of skilled labour and the mobility of workers

• Promote continuous learning by devising a strategy for it

• Strengthen the Erasmus programme by promoting training, skills and mobility

• Work towards achieving an ‘economy of wellbeing’, meaning a new approach to how people’s wellbeing enhances productivity and generates economic growth

• Strengthen gender equality in working life, and

• Support the social inclusion of young people.

Trio presidency

Regarding Education, the three Presidencies are committed to the implementation of policies aimed at strengthening the social dimension, tackling skills mismatch, and promoting the level of social protection of citizens. The Trio will concentrate on fostering mobility, inclusiveness and excellence, while also contributing to the promotion of European values. Furthermore, they will focus on the next generation cooperation frameworks in the education, youth, culture and sports sectors (such as the post ET2020 framework).

Events

• 23 /09: HELL WE CAN! Boosting Skills & Continous Learning in Europe
• 25-27/09: Towards a new evidence framework for the next generation of the EU youth programmes 2021-2017 – Ray Network meeting
• 14-17/10 European Vocational Skills week
• 16/10: VET for all – Skills for life

More information

• Presidency website
• Welling and skills: the foundation of inclusive growth
• Full programme