OBESSU reaction to the new Commissioners
On the 10th of September Commission President-Elect Jean-Claude Juncker announced the organisation of his Commission, which, if approved by the European Parliament, will lead the European Union during the coming five years.
OBESSU, firstly, would like to express its gratitude to the outgoing Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou for her work promoting education and youth in the Barroso II Commission. Following our reaction to the possibility that the “Education” portfolio would be replaced with a “Skills” portfolio, we are pleased to see that Mr Juncker has decided to retain this crucial brief in the form of a Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Citizenship. We trust that our constructive and reliable relationship with the Commission will be maintained into the mandate of Tibor Navracsics, the Commissioner-designate for this position.
OBESSU recognises that numerous civil society organisations have raised concerns about freedom of expression, press freedom and the treatment of civil society in Hungary, home country of the designate Commissioner. Therefore, we respectfully call on Mr Navracsics to demonstrate his commitment to European values by ensuring the Commission maintains and builds on its constructive relations with civil society organisations, especially in the field of education, training and youth.
On a structural note, we note that Units A3 (Skills and Qualification Strategies; Multilingualism Policy) and Unit B2 (Vocational Training and Adult Education) move from DG EAC to DG EMPL. We recognise that this move may suggest an intention from the Commission to formalise its skills-orientated attitude towards VET. Whilst we recognise the need to align VET with an ever-evolving labour market, we are concerned that moving this unit from DG EAC to DG EMPL may compromise the holistic attitude to VET. OBESSU strongly believes that the social and economic dimensions of education must be balanced and that VET, like all forms of education, should be seen as a public good and not only a tool for the labour market. VET students should not be considered workers; curricula and educational paths should still be carefully developed just as in the case with academic students. Therefore we hope that DG EMPL and Marianne Thyssen, Commissioner-designate for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility, will recognise the need for VET to go beyond skills and employment and that they will collaborate with DG EAC and Mr Navracsics to guarantee a holistic policy approach to VET in the mandate of the next Commission.
We look forward to actively contributing to the emerging education and training priorities of the Juncker Commission and continuing to maintain and build upon our constructive cooperation.
For more information, please contact board@obessu.org
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