eycs: Education, Youth, Culture & Sport

The Education, Youth, Culture and Sport Council (EYCS), deals with European Union policies on a wide range of issues. These include teaching and dissemination of languages, improving knowledge of the culture and history of the EU, encouraging mobility of students and teachers, vocational training to integrate citizens into the labour market, and stimulating artistic and literary creation. It works to complement Member State policies in this area. Depending on the items on the agenda, Member States are represented by their Ministers for Education, Culture, Youth, Communication or Sports. During the Irish Presidency it is being chaired by Mr. Ruairí Quinn, Minister for Education and Skills, Ms. Frances Fitzgerald, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Mr. Jimmy Deenihan, Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and Mr. Michael Ring, Minister of State for Tourism and Sport.

The key priorities of the Irish Presidency include:

• Reaching agreement on the new EU programme for education, training, youth and sport; ERASMUS for All.

• Advancing the ‘Creative Europe’ and ‘Europe for Citizens’ programmes.

• The contribution of youth policy and quality youth work in achieving the development, well-being and social inclusion of young people as well as achieving the goals of Europe 2020, in particular in addressing the youth employment challenge.