Along with major developments in European socio-economic governance, adult learning has acquired higher EU political authority (Milana & Klatt, 2019). Since 2011, gaining a new specialization in this substantial policy area (Sabatier & Weible, 2007), the Council of the EU has been able to set Communitarian agendas on adult learning (CEU, 2011; CEU, 2021). Over time, the core belief about adult learning of the Council of the EU has changed, adapting to broader socio-political circumstances and new EU strategic priorities. If a decade ago the Council believed that (targeted) adult learning could potentially support economic and social progress, by 2021 it trusts the learning of adults as a lifelong endeavour for the whole population in support of resilient and sustainable communities, and digital and green transitions. Accordingly, the mechanisms foreseen to implement a communitarian agenda on adult learning have developed to include a whole-of-government approach and higher emphasis on data, monitoring, and evidence-based policy. Thus, new actors are brought into this policy sub-system (e.g., EUROSTAT, the EU agency EUROFOUND, the Standing Group on Indicators and Benchmarks) (Milana & Mikulec, 2022). Previous research has shown that the visibility of adult learning rose under COVID-19, an ‘exogenous shock’ to both European and national systems (Bussi & Milana, forthcoming), which crisis narrative has the potential to prompt change in education policy (e.g., Morris, Park & Auld, 2022). But it is social dialogue and advocacy coalitions that helped to strengthen the alignment among different actors in the setting of a new European agenda for adult learning (2021-2030) under the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU (Milana & Mikulec, 2023). Drawing on a triangulation of data (documents, expert interviews, and participant observations), this contribution furthers this line of research by exploring how members of one specific coalition at EU level work together and learn from each other in their advocacy and lobbying for adult learning.

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