European Commission launches the European Literacy Coalition

Brussels – Schools, education and training bodies, libraries, cultural organisations, parents and public authorities. All united by a single goal: to improve literacy skills across Europe. The European Commission today (23 September) launched the European Literacy Coalition, an initiative under the Union of Skills – the European strategy that focuses on developing human capital and skills to boost competitiveness – and the Action Plan on Basic Skills. The aim is to strengthen cooperation on issues such as early childhood literacy and the training of professionals in the sector.

The launch of the Coalition comes at “a time of persistent literacy challenges.” The results of the OECD PISA 2025 survey – an international survey organised by the OECD (the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) to assess the skills of 15-year-old students in member countries – show that 31.3 per cent of 15-year-olds in the EU have difficulty understanding basic texts. According to the Executive Vice-President for Social Rights, Skills, Quality Jobs and Education, Roxana Mînzatu, these figures “clearly tell us that we need to step up our efforts on reading,” as well as “ensure that every young person in Europe develops the literacy skills they need to learn, participate fully in society and succeed in life.” The Coalition has also adopted a founding charter, the Warsaw Memorandum, a document that sets out a shared understanding of literacy, identifies key barriers across the lifespan, and outlines the first steps for the Coalition’s long-term work.