"Vocational education and training forces social cohesion in partner countries, and therefore education is high on the political agenda," stated Pierre Mairesse, new Director of Lifelong Learning at the European Commission's Directorate-General for Education and Culture (DG EAC), when he paid his first visit to the ETF.
Pierre Mairesse has the ETF in his portfolio which also includes the EU's lifelong learning strategy, the European Qualifications Framework, Europass, Entrepreneurship, Social Inclusion and the key competences framework. During meetings with ETF management and staff, Pierre Mairesse encouraged the ETF to use the new, enlarged mandate on human capital develoment to its full potential in order to promote reform of education and training in the EU neighbourhood.

"Education and training play an important role in the EU's vision for 2020, and both EU Member States and neighbouring countries are invited to reform their education and training systems to meet future needs", Pierre Mairesse underlined.
Pierre Mairesse referred to the seven EU flagship initiatives, agreed by the EU Council, and underlined that four of these "flagships" have elements of education and training. The flagship inititatives are the main tool to implement the targets of the EU 2020 strategy, and the European Commission sees these initiatives as a “powerful tool to shape new economic governance, supported by the internal market, our budget, our trade and external economic policy and the disciplines and support of economic and monetary union.”

EU 2020 flagship initiatives
1. Flagship Initiative: “Innovation Union”
2. Flagship initiative: “Youth on the move”
3. Flagship Initiative: “A Digital Agenda for Europe”
4. Flagship Initiative: “Resource efficient Europe”
5. Flagship Initiative: “An industrial policy for the globalisation era”
6. Flagship Initiative: “An Agenda for new skills and jobs”
7. Flagship Initiative: “European Platform against Poverty”

Further information:
DG Education and Culture
EU 2020 documents of the European Commission
EU 2020 documents of the Council of the European Union