During recent decades, European Union (EU) multi-level governance in education and training has evolved dramatically. Based on original empirical research from a diverse set of scholars employing a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches, this double symposium will discuss the unfolding trajectory of EU governance, with a particular focus on the governance architecture of Europe 2020, and the associated strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training (ET 2020). In addition to taking stock of developments since 2010, the symposium offers a tentative assessment of continuities and changes regarding the complex dynamics of the numerous policy instruments in the post- 2020 EU. 

The symposium identifies and discusses the complex and contingent dynamics in EU governance, emphasizing the ways that various sorts of tensions are integral to the innovative approaches in joint European coordination in the areas of education, training and skills in recent years. European educational policies need to account for different national educational systems, European, national, and local governance levels, and reconcile at times contradictory goals, such as economic efficiency and social equality. 

This ideally implies that policy instruments are designed which handle ambiguities in a productive way to promote educational development and address societal challenges ranging from globalization to technological changes and rising social inequalities. 

The entry point for the symposium is that such tensions are dynamically evolving and that it is rarely possible or even desirable to overcome them fully. In analytical terms, the tensions are associated with vertical and horizontal coordination. The former dimension relates to the EU’s increased capacity for joint coordination via the informal widening of the subsidiarity principle, whereas the horizontal dimension concerns the deepening coordination between different policy areas, evident in how education and employment have become increasingly incorporated in the ‘new economic governance’ of the EU. Furthermore, we are interested in the internal tensions of individual policy instruments, associated with their coverage and implementation in the diverse social and educational contexts of member states. 

We aim to explore the ways in which these various sorts of tensions have been – at least partially – productive in the sense that they enable joint coordination in EU multi-level governance, as well as the limitations associated with them. 

The contributions to this symposium deal with different types of recent policy instruments for education and training in Europe, studying such topics as their establishment, mechanisms, contents, or outcomes, and look at related processes of transnational information exchange and collaboration. The symposium also discusses the relationships and points of contact between policy instruments, which is rarely done but particularly relevant given the sheer number of intersecting policies. 

In the first part of the double symposium, recent policies and programmes shaping the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) are explored. The contributions cover HE reforms in Norway, Nordic regional HE integration, a comparison of COVID-19 policy responses in France, Germany and the UK, as well as a study on incremental ideational change in the thematic programming of EU research policy. The second part of the double symposium sheds light on new actors and constellations in the governance of education and training in the European knowledge economy. The contributions explore the role of novel alliances in the area of VET, agenda setting by private stakeholders and social partners, as well as synergies and tensions between European innovation and education policies. The second session includes country cases from Germany, Spain and Portugal while also providing perspectives on the interplay between various governance levels (EU, national or subnational). 

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