On 5 March, ALDE Party hosted a meeting with liberal and centrist education Ministers from across Europe to discuss the priorities of the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The meeting was chaired by Renew Europe Vice-President Katalin Cseh MEP and took place ahead of the Education, Youth, Culture and Sport Council that same day. 

Among other things, attendees identified the shortage of skilled teachers as one of the main challenges Europe is facing today. To address, it they discussed how to make the teaching profession more attractive and create a culture that values education, including measures to reduce the workload for teachers and increasing flexibility, including part-time teaching.  

They also proposed a European Year of Teachers to raise awareness of the possibilities provided by the Erasmus+ programme as ways to promote and support the teaching profession. 

List of participants: 

• Dr. Robbert Dijkgraaf, Minister of Education, Culture & Science (D66, The Netherlands) 
• Dr. Darjo Felda, Minister of Education (Svoboda!, Slovenia)   
• Lotta Edholm, Minister for Schools, Sweden-Presidency of the Council (Liberalerna, Sweden) 
• Valérie Glatigny, Minister for Education and Youth, (MR, Belgium) 
• Claude Meisch, Minister of Education, Children and Youth ( Demokratesch Partei, Luxembourg)   
• Dr. Jens Brandenburg - Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Education and Research (FDP, Germany) 
• Katalin Cseh MEP, Vice President of the Renew Europe Group (Momentum Mozgalom, Hungary)