As 2025 draws to a close, the Council of Europe Education Department can point to substantial progress achieved in advancing democratic culture, social cohesion and mobility through education, with key developments in citizenship education, higher education, history education and language policy.

A central milestone was the European Year of Digital Citizenship Education 2025, which mobilised member States around a shared vision of empowering learners to participate responsibly, critically and ethically in digital environments. Through high-level conferences, national initiatives and resource development activities, the European Year supported the integration of digital citizenship education into curricula and teacher education, while laying the foundations for a long-term policy Road Map for Strengthening Digital Citizenship Education 2027-2031.

The Council of Europe advanced the creation of the European Space for Citizenship Education, aimed to promote democratic values through quality citizenship education across Europe, with a launch planned for December 2026. The initiative is built on three pillars: principles, quality, and cooperation. The Education Policy Advisors Network (EPAN) plays a crucial role in this process, along with an international conference held in Montenegro as well as the World Forum for Democracy.  The Education Department also focused on projects related to vocational education and training (VET), early childhood education and care (ECEC) to embed democratic culture from early stages of education and education for sustainable development, further enhancing citizens' roles in democratic societies.  These intergovernmental programmes were bolstered by ten co-operation projects, putting policy into practice.

The EDURES toolkit, piloted in Italy and Albania, supports resilience-based educational strategies for responding to crises while aligning with UN commitments on education.

The Council of Europe's Gender Equality in Education Scorecard was launched to help member states measure and implement gender mainstreaming actions in education.

Higher education remained a key priority, marked by several major milestones. One of the highlights was  the 10^th session of the joint Council of Europe/UNESCO Lisbon Recognition Convention Committee, which adopted a new Code of Good Practice in the Provision of Transnational Education and the revised ENIC-NARIC Charter of Activities and Services. Momentum  toward automatic recognition of qualifications also accelerated. The Steering Committee for Education (CDEDU) approved the proposal to launch of the drafting process for a Convention on the Conditions of Transparency, Quality and Automatic Recognition of Higher Education Qualifications.

 Inclusive approaches to higher education were strengthened through the adoption of the Recommendation CM/Rec (2025) 6 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on the qualifications and linguistic competences of refugees. This was complemented by the  continued implementation of the European Qualifications Passport for Refugees, including  a survey to assess the initiative’s  impact and effectiveness.. The year also delivered notable progress  in ethics and integrity in education. New research on students’ perception of education fraud, joint work with IIEP-UNESCO on open school data, and the launch of a new Centre on Preventing and Countering Education Fraud highlighted the growing commitment to protecting quality and trust in education. Defending academic freedom remained central. This included two major conferences (the Forum in Prague in June and the 2^nd Conference of Academic Freedom in Action), as well as the launch of the Report on Erosion of Academic Freedom, reinforcing the Council of Europe’s leadership in protecting fundamental values.

History education remained a core pillar of the Department’s work, with sustained emphasis on quality, multiperspectivity and critical historical thinking. Activities in 2025 supported the teaching of sensitive and controversial histories, addressed the misuse of history for political purposes, and reinforced the role of history education in reconciliation, democratic resilience and social cohesion. The second thematic report of the Council of Europe Observatory on History Teaching in Europe focused on “Economic Crises in History Teaching”.

In the area of language policy, the Council of Europe continued to promote plurilingual and intercultural education as a foundation for inclusion, equity and democratic participation. Work during the year supported language education policies that value linguistic diversity, strengthen language competences for learning and citizenship, and provided additional instruments to facilitate the integration of migrants and refugees and inclusion of Roma children and young people, contributing to equal access to education across diverse linguistic contexts.

Together, these achievements reflect the Council of Europe Education Department’s integrated approach to education as a cornerstone of democracy, inclusion and mobility, and its continued commitment to cooperation among member States in addressing shared educational challenges.