A meeting was held today between the Minister of Education, Sports and Youth, Ms Athina Michailidou and the Director General of the Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sports and Culture of the European Commission (DG EAC), Ms Themis Christofidou. Initially, Ms Christofidou congratulated Ms Michailidou on taking up her new duties and confirmed her intention to continue and strengthen the cooperation between the European Commission and the Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth (MESY).
During the meeting, reference was made to the very close relationship between the MESY and the services of the European Union, which make a constructive contribution to the implementation of national reforms. There was also a mutual information and exchange of views on the priorities of the European Commission in the areas of competence of the Ministry of Education and Training, such as the European Education Area (ERA) with its individual issues, the Erasmus+ Programme and the absorption of funding by Cyprus, the "European University Networks" initiative, the legacy of the European Year of Youth (2022) and the European Week of Sport.
Referring to the national priorities, Ms Michaelidou underlined that these are in line with the priorities of the ERA and highlighted the fact that there are several challenges that need to be addressed in order to achieve the objectives of the ERA. Michailidou also confirmed Cyprus' practical support to the "European University Networks" institution, with the implementation of a funding mechanism for Cypriot universities participating in the Networks. He also referred to the tremendous progress that has been made on the issue of Cyprus' participation in the Erasmus+ programme and noted the multiple benefits that this entails. At the same time, Ms Michaelidou stressed that Cyprus has several examples of good practice to give to the EU on the issues under emphasis, contributing to the shaping of European policies, but of course also to take from other countries.
Finally, she also spoke about the new European initiatives, such as the European Year of Skills (2023) and the "European Writers' Day", initiatives supported by Cyprus through the programming of events within the framework of European projects and the National Lifelong Learning Strategy for the first initiative and the implementation of actions at the level of school units for the second initiative.
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