A new Council Recommendation on High Quality Early Childhood Education and Care Systems was made at the Council of the European Union’s Education, Youth, Culture and Sports Council at the end of May.

Council Recommendations are discussed and voted on following specific procedures. Although they are not legally binding, they do hold political weight. The intention is that Member States use them when preparing legislation.

The French institute for inclusive education, INSHEA, is hosting a summer school on inclusive education on 8–10 July 2019.

Entitled ‘Inclusive Education: Who for? What for?’, the event will welcome education professionals, users, community activists and researchers to take part in friendly debate around four main themes in inclusive education:

The European Agency Statistics on Inclusive Education (EASIE) data tables and country background information for the 2016/2017 school year (EASIE 2018) are now available on the Agency’s data web area. This is the third EASIE dataset to be published on the Agency website.

On 21–23 May 2019, the Agency held its bi-annual meeting in Stockholm, at the kind invitation of the Swedish National Agency for Special Needs Education and Schools (SPSM).

The bi-annual meeting was attended by around 50 Agency country representatives from across Europe, who took part in meetings and information exchange sessions topics connected to inclusive education.

The Agency participated in the second meeting of the of the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) Working Group, one of seven groups set up as part of the European Union’s Education and Training 2020 (ET 2020) programme.

The Working Groups provide a forum for the sharing of good practice and experience to support policy-making in education and training both nationally and at EU level. The ECEC Working Group aims to develop high quality early education and care services across Europe.

On 21–23 May 2019, the Agency will hold its bi-annual meeting in Stockholm, at the kind invitation of the Swedish National Agency for Special Needs Education and Schools (SPSM).

The bi-annual meeting in Stockholm will be attended by around 50 Agency country representatives from across Europe. Attendees will take part in meetings and information exchange sessions on current developments and priority topics connected to inclusive education within the Agency and across their countries.

In early April, the Icelandic Ministry of Education, Science and Culture organised a one-day seminar, with the Agency’s support. The aim of the seminar was to work on the recommendation to review and develop Iceland’s resource allocation and financing systems, which came out of the Agency’s 2017 Audit of the Inclusive Education System in Iceland.

The Jean Monnet programme supports initiatives and research on European integration and unity. It was launched by the European Union (EU) in 1989. Thirty years later, in 2019, it continues to promote dialogue between stakeholders around the world and enable research on EU policies.