European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth

The Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth is a member of the European Commission.

The portfolio is responsible for policies in education and training, youth, sport, civil society, culture, translation, interpretation and relations with the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.

History of the portfolio

Commissioner Ján Figeľ was approved by the European Parliament in 2004 as the European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism. This was enlarged since the Prodi Commission with the addition of training and multilingualism (The Directorate-General is still just Directorate-General for Education and Culture).

However, when Romania joined the European Union on 1 January 2007, responsibility for multilingualism was handed over to the new Romanian commissioner, Leonard Orban. In its place the portfolio now also includes youth, sport and civil society. Figeľ describes his position is very orientated to "the citizens and their quality of life".[1]

The Commission has become increasingly active in education. The ERASMUS programme, which was established in 1987, is a student exchange programme promoting mobility of students between European universities. The Bologna process aims to create a European Higher Education Area where academic qualifications can be recognised across Europe. The European Institute of Technology is a proposed research university.

With the 2014 inauguration of the Juncker Commission, the portfolio was once again renamed – multilingualism was removed in favor of citizenship: “Education, Culture, Youth and Citizenship”. Citizenship in turn was soon replaced by sport.[2][3] The current title therefore is European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport.

List of commissioners

The previous portfolio to the current was Culture, merged with Audiovisual policy and EP relations.

Name Country Period Commission
1 Viviane Reding  Luxembourg 1999–2004 Prodi Commission
2 Dalia Grybauskaitė  Lithuania 2004 Prodi Commission
3 Ján Figeľ  Slovakia 2004–2009 Barroso Commission I
4 Maroš Šefčovič  Slovakia 2009–2010 Barroso Commission I
5 Androulla Vassiliou  Cyprus 2010–2014 Barroso Commission II
6 Tibor Navracsics  Hungary 2014 onwards Juncker Commission

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ján Figeľ ec.europa.eu
  2. ↑ "Background paper N° 1" (PDF). EOC EU Office. November 2014. previously named “Education, Culture, Youth and Multilingualism” (Commissioner Vassiliou) and now to be called “Education, Culture, Youth and Citizenship”. The Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Tibor Navracsics, had been designated by Juncker to be in charge of this portfolio
  3. ↑ "European Commissioner of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport Tibor Navracsics". The Orange Files. 2013. Navracsics was originally nominated to the post of Commissioner of Education, Culture, Youth and Citizenship, though European Commission President Juncker chose to divest Navracsics of the latter domain and assign him the responsibility to oversee issues related to sports instead

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