22 years since the ambition to build a “European space of education” was first stated (Hingel, 2001), there is now a new programme on the creation of a European Education Area. This includes a new set of strategic goals for the 2021-2030 period (Council of the European Union, 2021), underpinned by the EU’s multiannual financial framework for 2021-27. A step change in the scope of EU education governance, these developments have implications for policy and practice in member states.

The entry point of this ECER symposium is that education governance in the EU context has entered a new phase, characterised by an unprecedented capacity to bring about Europeanisation in education sectors across Europe. Europeanisation refers to policy definitions at the EU level, the EU as a distinctive system of governance, and the different ways policies are diffused and incorporated within policy making in member states, changing domestic policy priorities and discourses (Lange & Alexiadou, 2010; Radaelli, 2008).

While education sectors across Europe continue to be very diverse, the evolution of EU governance over the recent decades has gradually brought education and lifelong learning policy into the centre of the EU integration project. In the process, education has increasingly been opened up for influences from other policy domains, especially economic and social policy, and vice versa (Pépin, 2011).

In this respect, one major development has been the introduction of the European Semester as a main mechanism of socio-economic governance in 2011. The Semester has substantially strengthened the monitoring role of the European Commission and the Country-specific Recommendations issued as part of the Semester process have had consequences for policies on education and training in many member states. In addition, EU governance is increasingly characterised by cross-sectoral coordination linking technical work with strategic priorities, for instance evident in the ways that the European Semester has been linked with new targeted investments through the European Social Fund and other funding schemes. Still, EU governance of education and training is of a ‘soft’ (non-legal) nature. It is consensus-driven and relies primarily on policy learning, cooperation, and knowledge exchange, with funding still a relatively minor incentive for policy change in most member states (Graf & Marques, 2022; Milana et al. 2020; Sorensen et al. 2021).

These developments raise several questions of interest to education policy analysts. For instance, how do the European Commission and the Council of the EU – the most important EU institutions in education governance – shape the direction of education and training policy at multiple scales? How does the increasing array of EU policy instruments seek to influence the (very diverse) national and local approaches to education policies in member states? Are some member states more affected by EU education governance than others? Vice versa, how do different member states attempt to shape the EU agenda on education? What are the most prominent areas of policy learning, and how are knowledge(s) exchanged and used as a tool of governance in different areas of education and training? How does EU education governance in the post-pandemic environment differ from that of earlier decades?

This symposium provides comparative research insights into these pertinent questions. It examines processes of Europeanisation of education policy within a broader public policy perspective, drawing on research that considers the multilevel nature of EU governance as well as a variety of member state contexts.

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