The European Education Area and the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Over the last decades, across the European Union (EU), the concern for improvement of vocational education and training within the member states grew in importance. The COVID-19 pandemic affected this area of a strategic importance. Therefore, the European Union is considering the adoption of the certain measures aimed at reforming it. According to the EU vision, vocational education and training are essential to the restoring of Europe after the COVID-19 pandemic. Each member state of the European Union manages its national education and training systems and establishes the content of the curricula. According to 165 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, (TFEU), the EU takes on the role of contributing to a quality education, encouraging the cooperation between member states. The fast outspread and the virulence of the COVID-19 pandemic led to the instauration of a panic feeling at global level. The global dynamics was turned upside down, causing survival, production and consume issues. Governments decided to introduce restricting measures across the economical and social plans. World economy was greatly affected: the markets collapsed, both in Europe and the United States, Latin America and Africa. The states adopted measures at national level, closing the borders and enforcing protectionist decisions. In their turn, citizens were ready to accept isolation measures in order to protect their health and lives. At the same time, free circulation and commerce, as well as the financial system, suffered as well. Therefore, autocratic and populist manifestations were greatly fuelled. Recession was in place and hundreds of millions of people became unemployed across the globe. State aids are the only financial resource for millions of people and numerous companies. A complex vicious circle came into being: the reduction of trust led to less crediting, unemployment and bankruptcy.