Hello and welcome to the ESNA podcast number 10 on European High Education Policy,

our first broadcast in 2018.

The European Commission has just published Plan announcing a well-sounding European Education Area 2025.

The only comments on this vague announcement, however, came from the European Students' Union

ESU in Brussels, a roof organization of student unions all over the continent.

We are talking with Helge Schwitters, presently ISU president.

Mr. Schwitters, do you understand what this European education area is about?

Is it about money?

Well, it's surprisingly vague on that, given the ambitions of the plan itself.

It does not say a lot about the financing on it, on any other things than the Erasmus Plus program, it says that they

will start up something called a Sorbonne process, which is going to lead to an easier way

of recognition of higher education, taking in one of their member states. But it does not say

exactly how it will be done,

but that it's being called something of a process makes me believe that this might be

quite a substantial change of how this is working right now.

Which part of the European Commission is responsible for this?

What I can say is that their education unit has not been informing us,

nor have I heard anything from the rest of the sector,

about these very ambitious proposals that are coming.

So what is clear, however, is that the pillar of social rights, which is now rolling out, has made the EU probably more ambitious on the fields connected to it.

What do you consider more ambitious? The most ambitious thing, as I can see, is the thing about recognition, because they're

taking a giant leap away from the current agreements between their member states, which

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