POLICY
Education and training are essential to the development and growth of the European economy and will play a crucial role in the collective pursuit of the Europe 2020 targets. Increased investment in human capital and the modernisation of education and training systems will help the EU to become a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy.
Much of this investment will be made at national level. However, with increasing numbers of European citizens looking beyond national borders for education and training opportunities, the EU has an important role to play in ensuring that the opportunities of the single market are made available to all.
The EU works to promote education and training in a wide variety of ways. Programmes to promote transnational learning mobility – such as the Erasmus programme – have proven to be a great success, helping people to acquire the new skills that will be needed for the jobs of tomorrow. Increased mobility can also contribute to the reform of education and training systems by facilitating the cross-border dissemination of ideas and best practices. Through a combination of targeted funding programmes and in combination with other sources of funding, such as the structural funds, the EU budget can deliver real value-added by promoting mobility, facilitating cooperation and exchange of best practice and supporting Member States in the modernisation of their education and training systems.
Europe’s cultural diversity is one of our greatest strengths, enriching and inspiring citizens and delivering real economic benefits. The economic and social role of the cultural and creative industries is increasingly evident, representing 4.5% of total European GDP in 2008 and accounting for some 3.8% of the workforce. The EU works in close co-operation with Member States in this area to harness the potential of the single market and to provide the right conditions for cultural and creative industries to prosper.
The next generation of programmes funded by the EU budget will address the weaknesses that limit the growth potential of this sector, by tackling market fragmentation, strengthening competitiveness in the cultural and audiovisual sectors, and focusing on capacity building measures and support for the circulation of cultural works.

INSTRUMENTS
The Commission proposes that the EU budget will support education and cultural policy via two main instruments:
>A programme for education, training and youth – ‘Education Europe’
This programme will bring together the currently separate sub-programmes of the Lifelong Learning Programme, the international aspects of Higher Education, including Erasmus Mundus, and Youth in Action. This will allow for greater efficiency, a stronger strategic focus and for synergies to be exploited between the various aspects of the programme.
Although they constitute the most efficient education degrees for innovative jobs and research, the current EU instruments for mobility are not adapted to masters’ students. The most cost efficient manner to reach this category of students is to use the EU budget to leverage funds from the private sector, mainly national banks, to guarantee the portability of student loans and grants.
The actions currently supported by the Leonardo programme will be boosted as part of efforts to combat youth unemployment and the Commission will work with the EIB to provide guarantees for loans to Master students wishing to do their Masters in another Member State.
The new programme will focus on:
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providing targeted transnational learning opportunities;
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matching skills and labour market demand in order to boost the employability, entrepreneurial spirit and participation of young people;
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volunteering as well as non-formal and informal learning; and
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supporting widespread reforms and the modernisation of education and training systems throughout Europe and beyond.
Concretely, the programme will comprise three main lines of action:
(1)
Trans-national learning mobility – as many as 800,000 EU citizens, mainly students, could be helped to be mobile each year.
(2)
Co-operation activities between education institutions and the world of work will be supported to promote the modernisation of education, innovation and entrepreneurship.
(3)
Policy support will be provided to gather evidence on the effectiveness of education investments and to help Member States implement effective policies.
Strict quality conditions for mobility, concentration on key policy objectives where critical mass can be achieved and complementarity with other EU programmes will be instrumental in ensuring very high European added value.
The Education Europe programme will incorporate existing international programmes such as Erasmus Mundus, Tempus, Alfa and Edulink and cooperation programmes with industrialised countries under the same instrument, and will accommodate different objectives (attractiveness of European Higher Education Area, excellence, solidarity and equity).
This approach will put an end to the current fragmentation of EU instruments supporting international cooperation in higher education which makes it difficult for students and universities to get access to information on Europe’s higher education opportunities and for EU higher education to be visible on the global scene.

>Sport
As part of the Education Europe programme, the proposed Sport sub-programme will focus on:
•tackling transnational threats that are specific to sport such as doping, violence, racism and intolerance, or issues relating to the integrity of competitions and sportspersons;
•developing European cooperation in sport through, for example, guidelines for dual careers of athletes or benchmarks for good governance of sporting organisations; and
•supporting grassroots sports organisations which can play a role in addressing wider socioeconomic challenges such as social inclusion.
This programme will bring EU added-value to issues arising from the specific nature of sport, mobilising private-sector financing from actors in the field of sport, and supporting organisations at the base of the sporting pyramid – not the top professional level.

>A programme for culture and the audiovisual industry – ‘Creative Europe’
This programme will bring together the current Culture, MEDIA and MEDIA Mundus programmes in order to focus support on the achievement of the Europe 2020 goals and to help unlock the job creation potential of the cultural and creative sectors. The programme will complement other EU programmes by specifically targeting the needs of the cultural and creative sectors aiming to operate beyond national borders, and with a strong link to the promotion of cultural and linguistic diversity. The specificities of each sector will be catered for, including through a dedicated budgetary allocation, and a third strand will provide horizontal support to the creative and cultural industries through the use of innovative financial instruments.

IMPLEMENTATION
Implementation of the new programmes will be greatly simplified.
The new Education Europe programme will bring about a significant simplification of actions and rules through the elimination of sub-programmes, a reduction in the overall number of activities and an increased use of lump sums.
The Creative Europe programme will be managed centrally through the Education Audiovisual and Communication Executive Agency (EACEA), as is currently the case for both Culture and MEDIA. A small number of actions will be managed directly by the Commission (e.g. European Capitals of Culture, EU cultural prizes, joint actions with international institutions).
The Culture and MEDIA strands of the Creative Europe programme will be complemented by an innovative financial instrument, run by the EIB group, to provide debt and equity finance for cultural and creative industries (CCI). This will address one of the key barriers to the development of cultural and creative content – access to finance – and would reach cultural and creative industries that are not supported through other EU programmes.

PROPOSED BUDGET ALLOCATION FOR 2014-2020
All figures in constant 2011 prices
Total proposed budget 2014-2020 €16.8 bn
of which
•Education Europe €15.2 bn
•Creative Europe €1.6 bn