José Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission, said: "Europe cannot afford that so many young people who have the potential to contribute to our societies and our economies are left behind. We need to realise the potential of all young people in Europe in order to recover from the crisis."

The European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, Androulla Vassiliou, added: "Reducing the share of early school leavers across Europe by just 1 percentage point would create nearly half a million additional qualified young people each year. Most EU countries have made progress in reducing the number of young people leaving school with low qualifications, but more needs to be done."

The Commission's new initiative outlines the situation across Europe regarding early school leaving, its main causes, its risks for future economic and societal development, and proposes ways to tackle the problem more effectively.

The accompanying proposal for a Council Recommendation contains guidelines to help Member States develop comprehensive and evidence-based policies to reduce early school leaving.

Read the full press release and other related documents here.

The Recommendation of the Council invites Member States:
• to identify main factors leading to early school leaving and monitor developments at
national, regional and local level,
• to develop and implement comprehensive and cross-sectoral policies against early school
leaving, based on their specific conditions.

The Recommendation invites the European Commission to support policies at national level
by:
• monitoring developments across Member States and supporting peer learning and
exchange of good practice between them,
• supporting policies to reduce early school leaving in all relevant activities managed by the
Commission which are targeted at children and young people and promoting cross-sectoral
cooperation,
• launching studies, comparative research and cooperation projects.