New EU Commission plans on returns and detention will create more harm and suffering

Over 90 civil society organisations address EU Commission in a joint statement published on 3 March 2017. Social Platform, EPA is a member of, is one if the signees and the statement is fully in line with EPA's advocacy efforts. Bowing down to political pressure to be “tough” on irregular migration, the European Commission has turned its back on the full implementation of human rights safeguards in its Returns’ Directive and is actively pushing member states to lower the bar.

Stop Cyberbullying - campaign in Catalonia to educate parents

Newsflash by Josep-Manuel Prats, EPA Vice President

While the EU is enforcing a directive trying to legally restrict the internet use of our children, parents’ associations in Catalonia has initiated a campaign totally in line with EPA’s policy paper, adopted by consensus of the members.

All the federations of parents' associations in Catalonia have agreed to start an awareness raising campaign the target groups of which are especially fathers and mothers. We have the explicit support of the Government of Catalonia.

Forum on Leadership Policy on Equity and Learning: Take it to the Students

The Maltese Ministry of Education hosted a conference on school leadership and equity, co-organised by the former European Policy Network on School Leadership (EPNoSL) on 16/17 January 2017. As an active member of the EPNoSL, EPA was offered the opportunity not only to participate, but also to offer input in two workshops on Supporting National Advocacy of Parents’ Associations and Giving Responsibility to Boost Participation. EPA was represented in the event by Brigitte Haider, our Project Manager. You can read her detailed report below.

The conference also offered an opportunity to have a discussion among former network members in order to successfully submit an application for a next financing round for our work on school leadership policy. Since the event the submission was done and now we all keep our fingers crossed for it. EPA is offered a major role in the planned network, together with our regular collaborator, the European School Heads Association, ESHA. The network would be again led by FORTH and we have enjoyed working with them.

Competition hihglighting STEM for 10+ children

SciChallenge, an international STEM-contest, makes scientific careers more attractive to young people through social media. Since January 2017, submissions for the SciChallenge competition are open to youngsters between 10-20 years. Participants can win a trip to Vienna and further prizes by
submitting their project until 30th of April 2017. It is organised and promoted by one of EPA's partners, the European Students' Union (ESU), under the framework of a Horizon2020 project. We are working on the possibility to include a parent representative in the jury and to also award a special parental prize.

Your opportunity to influence the Key Competences framework in the EU

The European Commission has launched a public consultation which will run until 19 May 2017. This is part of a process within the Skills Agenda, aiming at boosting human capital in Europe and updating EU - and subsequently hopefully also national - policies to make one more attempt to modernise education in Europe so that it supports what is necessary for learners' success. The review and update of the 2006 Recommendation on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning is part of this process and the public consultation is the opportunity for your voice to be heard on European level. EPA has been active in the process and will submit its own contribution, but all readers of our blog, especially our national members are encouraged to do so, too.

Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD)

The Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD) supports EU countries' actions to provide material assistance to the most deprived. EPA was invited to find ways to cooperate and our representative, Herminio Correa is working on finding ways to offer additional support by national parents associations in the form of empowerment to complement material contributions offered by FEAD. Read this short report and feel free to contact us if you want to join support action.

New scientific tool to analyse the inclusiveness of education systems embraces EPA advocacy messages

Professor Paul Downes and his team has just published a scientific paper setting up an exhaustive set of structural indicators to measure the inclusiveness of systems in and around schools on different vertical levels and local. Inclusion is key to making Europe more successful in educating lifelong learners who are equipped for future challenges and can also cope with the present. Professor Downes, one of the speakers of our conference in Dubrovnik in April 2016, shares our thoughts about the importance of fully engaging both parents and students of all ages as the only means to achieve this successfully. We were consulted as experts during the development of the indicators, and we are proud to see that our comments were not only taken into account, but the paper refers to and openly embraces EPA advocacy messages, becoming the first official European Commission document referencing our Manifesto 2015. The publication offers assessment tools for use on national policy and also on institutional (school) level. It is free to be downloaded from here.