The Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth is a member of the European Commission. The current commissioner is Androulla Vassiliou.
The portfolio is responsible for policies in education and training, youth, sport, civil society, culture, translation, interpretation and relations with the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.
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Commissioner Ján Figeľ was approved by the European Parliament in 2004 as the European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism. This was enlarged since the Prodi Commission with the addition of training and multilingualism (The Directorate-General is still just Directorate-General for Education and Culture).
However when Romania joined the European Union on 1 January 2007 responsibility for multilingualism was handed over to the new Romanian commissioner, Leonard Orban. In its place the portfolio now also includes youth, sport and civil society. Figeľ describes his position is very orientated to "the citizens and their quality of life"[1].
The Commission has become increasingly active in education. The ERASMUS programme, which was established in 1987, is a student exchange programme promoting mobility of students between European universities. The Bologna process aims to create a European Higher Education Area where academic qualifications can be recognised across Europe. The European Institute of Technology is a proposed research university.
The previous portfolio to the current was Culture, merged with Audiovisual policy and EP relations.
| Name | Country | Period | Commission | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Viviane Reding | Luxembourg | 1999–2004 | Prodi Commission |
| 2 | Dalia Grybauskaitė | Lithuania | 2004 | Prodi Commission |
| 3 | Ján Figeľ | Slovakia | 2004–2009 | Barroso Commission I |
| 4 | Maroš Šefčovič | Slovakia | 2009–2010 | Barroso Commission I |
| 5 | Androulla Vassiliou | Cyprus | 2010 onwards | Barroso Commission II |