A draft opinion by GUE/NGL’s Liadh Ní Riada for better-resourced public education systems across the EU and a revision of the Youth Guarantee Scheme and the Youth Employment Initiative has been passed at a vote in the Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education this morning.

The Irish MEP had already voiced concern that the 2.5 per cent cuts in investment for education and training between 2010 and 2014 have seriously undermined equality and social inclusion across the EU, as part of the debate on the ‘EU action for sustainability’ motion for the 2030 Development Agenda.

Additionally, a revision of the youth-related initiative is badly needed in order to promote the creation of new high-quality jobs and decent social protection for young people in the EU.

Commenting after the vote, Ní Riada said that although she was pleased with the result, much more investment is needed:

“Despite the result of the vote, I remain concerned and I believe we should all be concerned about the fact that from 2010 to 2014, investment in education and training decreased by 2.5 per cent in the EU as a whole.”

“Opinions, as we all know, need to be short and direct. We decided, when drafting this opinion, that we would focus on the fourth Sustainable Development Goal of the 2030 Development Agenda, in the European policy framework.”

“Of course, if the opportunity was made available to me, I would have broadened the scope of the opinion but space and procedure would not permit that,” she concluded.