On September 24, the Bologna Follow Up Group (BFUG) held its final regular meeting before the upcoming Ministerial conference on November 19. Due to the COVID-19 situation, the meeting was held online. It was co-chaired by Germany and the United Kingdom, which co-chair the European Higher Education Area this semester. The Council of Europe is a very active consultative member of the EHEA.

The BFUG considered an almost final draft Communiqué for the Ministerial conference and reviewed the Terms of Reference of working groups in the 2021-24 work program subject to Ministers adopting the draft Rome Communiqué on November 19. The BFUG also considered the situation of higher education in Belarus in view of the current situation and asked Germany and the United Kingdom as BFUG Co-Chairs and Italy as host of the Ministerial conference to propose ways of addressing this issue at the Ministerial conference.