The aim is to follow it up with the implementation of an action plan identifying common priorities by the end of this year. Lifelong learning fundamentally depends on personal incentives and opportunities. It cannot be implemented by top-down decrees. In this context, an example of our role in raising awareness and encouraging local initiatives on a Europe-wide scale is the current European Year of Languages , carried out jointly with the Council of Europe. Significant progress has also recently been made as regards the inevitably complex and sensitive issues of comparing the performances of different national approaches to learning, and defining the concrete objectives of education and training systems .
Education systems are, of course, closely related to national cultures and identities.
They reflect the diversity we want to preserve in Europe. But they are facing similar challenges at a time of rapid change. Government heads and education ministers alike now fully acknowledge that. They have agreed to work under a process coordinated by the Commission during which we will together review all aspects of education and training, under the three overarching objectives of quality, access and opening up to the wider world. The mantras of lifelong learning and the knowledge society have become commonplace in recent years.