Global Education brings a positive agenda to the forefront

Opening Statement by Ms. Agnieszka Skuratowicz
Head of Unit of INTPA G3 – Directorate-General for International Partnerships - European Commission

On 17 November 2021, Ms. Skuratowicz delivered the opening statement of GENE Roundtable 45 and highlighted the importance of the work of GENE and underlined the Commission’s commitment to Global Education as a way to overcome fear and division and increase space for democratic participation across policy areas, with international cooperation, and bringing together the local and global dimensions. Read below Ms. Skuratowicz’ full opening statement.

The world has changed tremendously since 2001. We are still assessing, of course, the impact that the COVID pandemic has on our societies. Fear has found a comfortable place in our lives and workplaces, fueling people's actions and reactions, including too often policymaking as well in many countries. Raising barriers, building new walls - mental and physical - and creating divisions. In such a context, the role of Global Education brings a positive agenda to the forefront.

You open people's eyes, you provoke critical thinking, you raise awareness and empower young people to become agents for positive change, to become active as global citizens. In a world where the space for democratic engagement and activism is shrinking.

Directly and indirectly, for 20 years now, you've been asking and providing answers to the fundamental question: what do we have in common, what keeps us together? In our reach, in diverse communities in Europe and beyond, you are like a glue bringing together education policy, foreign policy and international cooperation, the local and global dimensions.

The GENE network is indeed unique in its genre, also from an institutional perspective. You bring together Ministries of Education and Ministries of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, you combine the internal and external aspects of education policies.

They are indeed part of the very same coin. In such a way you succeeded in building your way through beyond the silos and even beyond the borders. I was very glad to see that the representatives from Norway, Iceland, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro are participating in today's discussion.

You represent as a network, the richness of our European experience and expertise, which reflect in turn various experiences, histories, real life, the different perceptions and sensitivities that you are open and eager to learn from each other, who dialogue and exchange. And this is your, our real European comparative advantage.

Let me tell you here that the Commission, DG INTPA, is trying to put together your two constituencies - education and international cooperation - to discuss cooperation with new partner countries in the field of education, and it is really far from easy, so you are real pioneers in this field.

While preparing for this Roundtable session, I learnt that GENE embarked on a process towards the new European Declaration on Global Education to 2050.

You will discuss it during the two days of the Roundtable and this is, of course, always a very crucial moment for an organization, as it needs to reconfirm the commitment of all the network members to a common cause and objectives in such difficult times. It also pushes everyone to think with a foresight mindset, learning from all the successes and failures from the past.

I was very glad to learn that Ms Jutta Urpilainen, the Commissioner for International Partnerships, came with the strong support of this initiative last June for your anniversary. I am very glad as well that we can continue supporting your work in the next horizon. And I'm very much looking forward, personally, and together with my team, to engaging with GENE, to contribute to the process leading to the adoption of the new declaration. And I wish you very fruitful discussions over the next two days and I thank you very much for your attention and for the invitation, once again.