Education and Training

Abstract

Most references in the Community’s and Union’s Treaties and Charter to action in the area of social protection are confined to provisions for workers under labour law and in social security systems where the basis for entitlements is derived primarily from employment. When the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) was signed in 1957 [1.2], member states were concerned with social provisions only in so far as differences in national systems might impede freedom of movement for workers within the Community or distort competition. For the EEC founder members, education and training were therefore of only indirect interest: attention was focused on recognition of qualifications and on co-operation in vocational training rather than on harmonising educational systems (Articles 57 and 128).