The European Commission has published its annual report on investment in education, based on figures for 2022. That year, the share of public expenditure invested in education in the EU remained stable at 4.7% of GDP and 9.5% of total public spending, after falling during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The report points out that, although nominal investment in education increased by 6.1% on average in the EU in 2022, this increase did not keep pace with inflation, marking a real decrease of 0.7%.
Ten Member States even saw their education spending fall: Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Greece, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania and Luxembourg. The biggest differences were seen in Lithuania, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Estonia and Belgium, where nominal increases exceeded 10%, but failed to offset inflation.
In light of the energy transition and support for Ukraine, priorities for public funding have been rethought. For example, spending on ’economic affairs’ - government activities and policies designed to stimulate economic growth - has risen by 2.3 percentage points, while spending on education has fallen by 0.6 percentage points between 2019 and 2022.
The report does, however, identify some promising initiatives. The Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) has allocated around €75 billion between 2021 and 2026 for reforms and investment in education and skills.
In addition, the EU’s cohesion policy has earmarked €33 billion for education over the period 2021-2027.
The European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Iliana Ivanova, has called for continued adequate investment in education to ensure the EU’s long-term competitiveness. She urged Member States to use all funding opportunities and to implement reforms that promote learning outcomes and inclusion for all young Europeans.
Read the report: https://aeur.eu/f/cwb (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)