The Commission presents the second evaluation of the Decision of the European Parliament and the Council on a single Community framework for the transparency of qualifications and competences (Europass) ( for the results of the first evaluation, please refer to the summary dated 04/07/2008 on the current procedure reference. )

Objectives of Europass and main conclusions of the evaluation: established in 2005, Europass helps learners and workers make their competencies and knowledge better understood across Europe through tools to register and make their skills and qualifications transparent. However, some of its present tools need adapting to address the challenges posed by the expectations and needs of today’s learners and evolving labour markets.

The report analyses the achievements of the Europass framework on the basis of the external evaluation of Europass carried out in 2012. It stresses that the original objectives remain relevant, in particular to the Education and Training 2020 Strategic Framework for European cooperation (Education and Training 2020). Europass supports the movement of learners and workers for lifelong learning or work by allowing skills, qualifications and learning outcomes to be compared. Europass, and in particular the Europass CV , has established itself as a well-recognised, well-trusted brand for transparency and recognition, in Europe and beyond. Figures from March 2013 indicate that more than 27 million Europass CVs were completed on-line since its launch in 2005. Evaluation data also show that most Europass tools still do not fully reach large groups of potential users . At present Europass users tend to be young, female and highly educated. Better coordination with services providing career guidance and their integration within the Europass framework, would enable large groups to be targeted — such as low-skilled unemployed people , who often lack the necessary skills to complete the Europass documents or who may find them too complex or confusing.

Other improvements necessary include enhanced convergence with other European reference tools and better interoperability of Europass IT tools with EU tools used for job matching.

In order to address such shortcomings, the current Europass structure should be changed into a simpler, more target-oriented and up-to-date service , whilst maintaining its original aim of comparability and transparency of skills and qualifications to improve the geographical and occupational mobility of learners and workers. Revisiting Europass is becoming even more urgent as several private, local and/or national initiatives with similar objectives are in the process of being developed, in particular in electronic form such as e-portfolios.

Development and operational proposals : the report states that there is a clear need to adapt the current Europass tools to more flexible and learner-oriented learning pathways, which should exploit the potential of modern technologies. It should retain existing users and attract new ones, in particular low skilled individuals.

To achieve this, a new Europass legal basis , permitting regular updates and adjustments of these tools, may be needed.

The report discusses the following possible developments:

· improved synergies between Europass and other European initiatives : Europass could focus on providing interactive tools for the transparency of skills and qualifications, bringing the different European networks, information services and other tools currently concerned with skills and qualifications together under a single entry point;

· Europass as an instrument to facilitate flexible learning pathways , meeting the needs of individuals: this could be done through facilitating the interoperability of European credit transfer systems, such as ECTS and ECVET, between education and training levels and across countries or taking into account validating non-formal and informal learning with Youthpass;

· improving the interoperability of Europass with EU tools used for job matching , for example through link the Europass CV tool with the EURES CV database.

The Commission will discuss the conclusions presented in this report with relevant stakeholders during the public debate on the European Area of Skills and Qualifications in winter 2013/2014. Based on the conclusions of this debate, the Commission may consider proposing a revision of the current legal basis of Europass.

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This report on the first evaluation of the Europass initiative is based on an external evaluation. It presents the evaluator’s main findings and recommendations as well as the Commission’s conclusions and intended follow-up. This evaluation covers the period from January 2005 to August/September 2007): two and a half years of operation of the Europass portal and two full years of implementation at national level.

The report makes clear that the evaluation finds that the Europass initiative is relevant and provides an effective service to citizens moving for lifelong learning or in the labour market. Its implementation tools are cost-efficient and highly appreciated by users. The potential of the initiative could however be more fully exploited, for which purpose the evaluation presents a number of recommendations which are as follows:

Europass is already particularly relevant for learners' mobility and development action is now needed on occupational mobility, namely international job mobility; the Europass CV is highly valued and should be developed further, by improving its template and offering a shorter version, in consultation with employers, recruitment agencies and guidance centres; promotion at national level should be intensified through cooperation with guidance centres and businesses; more examples and guidelines on the use of all Europass documents should be provided on the portal; Europass Diploma Supplement should be developed further to take learning outcomes better into account; complementarity of Europass with the education and training programmes should be intensified; cooperation with other transparency developments should be ensured.

The Commission, in consultation with the Lifelong Learning Programme Committee, the European network of National Europass Centres (NECs) , the Advisory Committee on Vocational Training and the High Level Forum on Mobility, and in accordance with available resources, plans to:

cooperate further with guidance, employment and youth services to make Europass more useful for and better known to the low-qualified and the unemployed , now inadequately represented among the users of the Europass portal and the Europass CV; develop, with the support of Cedefop, a fully fledged Europass CV and self assessment service , including:

- a more flexible Europass CV , with options targeting different user groups, such as inexperienced young people, the low-qualified, mid-career professionals or professional researchers, also drawing on existing resources addressing such. A shorter and lighter version of the CV will also be developed. Compatibility with the CV databases of national employment services and recruitment agencies will be further pursued, following the forthcoming compatibility with the CV service of EURES (European Employment Services), the European Job Mobility portal;

- self assessment tools to allow people go deeper in identifying and describing their learning outcomes in terms of knowledge, skills and competences. These will include developing further the existing Europass Language Passport , in cooperation the Council of Europe, and developing new self-assessment tools focusing on personal skills, namely those acquired through non formal and informal learning , and also on ICT skills;

- appropriate tutorials, guidelines and examples, to be developed in cooperation with the NECs, the Euroguidance network, the youth and employment services, and the social partners;

generalise by 2010 the use of Europass Mobility under the Lifelong Learning Programme so that it is systematically issued to all citizens who have completed mobility actions under any of the individual Erasmus, Comenius, Grundtvig and Leonardo da Vinci programmes, and promote its use within the Marie Curie programme. This will be undertaken in consultation with and require the support of the programme national agencies and the NECs; through the NECs, and in cooperation with the guidance, youth and employment services, promote further the use of Europass Mobility in mobility actions established at the national or regional level, including as a standard part of higher education exchanges and in relation to the mobility of apprentices, as well as within youth and volunteer activities; encourage the coordinated management, promotion and integration within the Europass framework of the Europass Diploma Supplement in cooperation with the relevant actors at the European level (Council of Europe, Unesco-Cepes, Bologna process secretariat, ENIC-NARIC networks, university and students' associations) and at the national level (the NECs, programme national agencies, higher education institutions, Bologna experts, ENIC-NARIC centres, stakeholders associations). The further development of the Europass Diploma Supplement will be examined, in cooperation with the relevant actors, in order to record better its holder's learning outcomes; encourage the coordinated management, promotion and development of the Europass Certificate Supplement at the European and national levels, in cooperation with Cedefop, the Social Partners and other relevant stakeholders. This will take into account the relevant developments within the Copenhagen process, for instance in relation to occupational profiles, the European credit transfer system for vocational education and training (ECVET), as well as the shift towards learning outcomes; ensure that, by 2012 , the templates of all relevant Europass documents include a reference to the European Qualifications Framework for lifelong learning.

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PURPOSE : to establish a single framework for the transparency of qualifications and competences known as "Europass".

LEGISLATIVE ACT : Decision 2241/2004/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council.

CONTENT : this Decision establishes a single Community framework for achieving the transparency of qualifications and competences by means of the creation of a personal, coordinated portfolio of documents, to be known as ‘Europass', which citizens can use on a voluntary basis better to communicate and present their qualifications and competences throughout Europe. The use of Europass or of any of the Europass documents does not impose any obligations or confer any rights other than those defined in the Decision. This framework created by this Decision consists in a portfolio of documents with a common brand name and a common logo, supported by information systems and

promoted through sustained promotional action at European and national level.

The Europass documents will be:

- the Europass-curriculum vitae ( ‘the Europass-CV');

- Europass-Mobility, which will record periods of learning attended by its holders in countries other than their own;

- Europass-Diploma Supplement, which will provide information on its holder's educational achievements at higher education level;

- Europass-Language Portfolio, which provides citizens with the opportunity to present their language skills;

- Europass-Certificate Supplement, which will describe the competences and qualifications corresponding to a vocational training certificate.

The templates for these documents are set out in the Annexes.

- any other documents approved as Europass documents by the Commission, in accordance with the prescribed criteria and procedure;

Each Member State must designate a National Europass Centre (NEC), which will be responsible for the coordination at national level of all activities referred to in the Decision and which will replace or develop existing bodies currently carrying out similar activities.

The tasks and responsibilities of the NECs are set out in the Decision.

The Commission shall secure the expertise of the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop) in implementing the Decision, in accordance with Regulation 337/75/EEC. Subject to the same conditions and in the relevant areas, coordination will be established under the auspices of the Commission with the European Training Foundation as set out by Regulation 1360/90/EEC.

By 1 January 2008 and then every four years, the Commission will submit to the European Parliament and the Council an evaluation report on the implementation of the Decision.

ENTRY INTO FORCE : 1 January 2005.

Decision 2004/2241
OJ L 390 31.12.2004, p. 0006-0020

The European Parliament adopted a resolution drafted by Ljudmila NOVAK (EPP-ED, SI) and approved the common position.

T6-0095/2004
OJ C 226 15.09.2005, p. 0024-0068 E

Results of vote in Parliament

The European Parliament adopted a resolution drafted by Ljudmila NOVAK (EPP-ED, SI) and approved the common position.

T6-0095/2004

Debate in Parliament

A6-0056/2004

A6-0056/2004

The committee adopted the report by Ljudmila NOVAK (EPP-ED, SI) approving the Council's common position unamended under the 2nd reading of the codecision procedure.

The 14 amendments by the European Parliament incorporated in full or in substance in the common position do not alter the content of the Commission's initial proposal. The Commission therefore considers the text of the common position to be acceptable.

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In its common position, the Council approved the Commission's proposal in principle, while making certain amendments which it thought desirable. It equally considers that its common position constitutes a balanced text, providing a good basis for launching this instrument , thereby facilitating mobility throughout Europe for lifelong learning purposes.

It notes that the 14 amendments by the European Parliament incorporated in full or in substance in the common position do not alter the content of the Commission's initial proposal. The Council introduced other changes, in particular amending the procedure and defining the criteria for introducing new documents in the Europass structure. The names of the documents included in the framework and of the implementation bodies are also slightly amended. These changes do not alter the content of the Commission's initial proposal.

More specifically, as regards the amendments made by the Council to the Commission's proposal, these concern the following :

- Future inclusion of other documents : the Council considers that provision should be made for the inclusion of other documents in the future (e.g. in the field of IT) in accordance with the criteria laid down in the new Annex I and the procedure;

- Committee Procedure : in view of the future introduction of other documents, the Council is of the view that the Commission should be assisted in this task by the relevant existing Committees (Socrates and Leonardo) in accordance with a management procedure;

- Social Partners : provision has been made for the consultation by the Commission of the social partners and other relevant stakeholders at European level;

- Designation of the documents : with a view to enhancing the Europass logo, the Council proposes that "Europass" be part of the designation of all the documents in the portfolio (i.e. Europass-Curriculum Vitae; Europass-Mobility; Europass-Diploma Supplement; Europass-Language Portfolio; Europass-Certificate Supplement);

- National Europass Centres : the Council is of the view that the bodies responsible for the implementation of the decision should be called "National Europass Centres" (NEC) rather than "Europass National Agencies", since the term agency could be taken to imply a specifically created body, whereas the NECs are intended to replace or develop, where appropriate, existing bodies carrying out similar activities;

- Information Systems : the Council has clarified the scope of citizens' access to information systems as far as Europass documents are concerned.

12242/1/2004
OJ C 321 28.12.2004, p. 0001-0018 E

In its common position, the Council approved the Commission's proposal in principle, while making certain amendments which it thought desirable. It equally considers that its common position constitutes a balanced text, providing a good basis for launching this instrument , thereby facilitating mobility throughout Europe for lifelong learning purposes.

It notes that the 14 amendments by the European Parliament incorporated in full or in substance in the common position do not alter the content of the Commission's initial proposal. The Council introduced other changes, in particular amending the procedure and defining the criteria for introducing new documents in the Europass structure. The names of the documents included in the framework and of the implementation bodies are also slightly amended. These changes do not alter the content of the Commission's initial proposal.

More specifically, as regards the amendments made by the Council to the Commission's proposal, these concern the following :

- Future inclusion of other documents : the Council considers that provision should be made for the inclusion of other documents in the future (e.g. in the field of IT) in accordance with the criteria laid down in the new Annex I and the procedure;

- Committee Procedure : in view of the future introduction of other documents, the Council is of the view that the Commission should be assisted in this task by the relevant existing Committees (Socrates and Leonardo) in accordance with a management procedure;

- Social Partners : provision has been made for the consultation by the Commission of the social partners and other relevant stakeholders at European level;

- Designation of the documents : with a view to enhancing the Europass logo, the Council proposes that "Europass" be part of the designation of all the documents in the portfolio (i.e. Europass-Curriculum Vitae; Europass-Mobility; Europass-Diploma Supplement; Europass-Language Portfolio; Europass-Certificate Supplement);

- National Europass Centres : the Council is of the view that the bodies responsible for the implementation of the decision should be called "National Europass Centres" (NEC) rather than "Europass National Agencies", since the term agency could be taken to imply a specifically created body, whereas the NECs are intended to replace or develop, where appropriate, existing bodies carrying out similar activities;

- Information Systems : the Council has clarified the scope of citizens' access to information systems as far as Europass documents are concerned.

12242/1/2004

13069/2004

CES0658/2004
OJ C 117 30.04.2004, p. 0012-0014

T5-0362/2004
OJ C 104 30.04.2004, p. 0745-0960 E

T5-0362/2004

CDR0307/2003
OJ C 121 30.04.2004, p. 0010-0014

Debate in Parliament

A5-0247/2004

A5-0247/2004

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