Education and Training Policy in the European Semester: Public investment, public policy, social dialogue and privatisation patterns across Europe

This report seeks to make connections between the working of the European Semester and its impact on education provision and education policies in Member States. In order to make these connections, this report presents data in relation to four aspects of education, thus the main body of this report is presented in four sections:

1. Levels of public spending on education in Member States during the period the Semester has been in operation.
2. An analysis of Country Specific Recommendations (CSRs) and the extent to which these shape education policy priorities.
3. A summary of the extent to which teacher unions are involved in social dialogue about the issues that impact them and their members.
4. ETUCE member organisations’ views about education privatisation processes, and privatisation trends in Member States.

In addition to the data above, this report presents five country cases studies (Denmark, Italy, Lithuania, Malta and Slovenia) which provide additional detail about the interface between EU agendas and their impact on the education policies of Member States. The case studies also highlight the extent to which education social partners in Member States believe they have had an input into the Semester process in their respective countries.

This report is based on research conducted between March 2016 and March 2017 for the project Investing in Education: Strengthening the involvement of teacher trade unions in the European Semester on education and training (European Commission reference - VS/2015/0329). Full details of the research methods and processes of data collection are included in Appendix 1. Details of the survey referred to above are included in Appendix 2.