Name: EC Press conference by European Commission Executive Vice-President Roxana MÎNZATU on the Education and skills package
Uploaded: 2026-11-05T12:00:48+00:00
Duration: 1250 s

EC Press conference by European Commission Executive Vice-President Roxana MÎNZATU on the Education and skills package

5 November 2026

Contents updated on 5 Nov 2026

The journalist raises the context of teacher and student protests in France, asking about low teacher salaries, competition from better-paid English-language/private schools, and resulting social discrimination, and how the Commission sees these contradictions across Europe and beyond.

Thu, 5 Nov 2026 European Commission

Follow its sittings

00:00 - 00:15

Speaker 1

Thank you for your patience. Now we can continue. So, let's start where we ended up, Odile, your question you have. You can start.

00:15 - 01:00

Speaker 3

First of all, thank you very much, Commissioner, for such a timely intervention, you know, what's going on in France at the moment. You know, I'm from Radio Nord Bretagne, Odile Larvé. One would imagine that to could to speak to all the teachers and the students that are on the street again. All right. And what you just indicated, in fact, is that it's difficult for teachers to join the profession because they are not the pay is not high enough, right?

01:00 - 01:49

Speaker 4

Except that you have competitive a competitive systems in many countries, you know. English-speaking schools pay their teachers usually much higher than state schools, and which means that it doesn't open to or there is a discrimination also, because, as a result, you have to be able to pay high fees for your kids, you see? So, how do you how do you envisage all this contradiction and you know, in the whole of in the whole of Europe, and not just Europe, out in the outside world, you see? Thank you.

01:49 - 02:40

Speaker 2

Very good question. As a personal reflection, the timing is what it is. We have been working for two years at some parts of this package, but indeed to deliver it now when we have students in the streets protesting, it is I think it makes the case for how important it is to act at European and national level, in the sense of putting education, as I said, at the center of our budgetary and economic policymaking. At European level, the way I steered the process was exactly like that. You find the human capital recommendation in the European Semester, so putting investment in skills and education at the center of our efforts to coordinate our fiscal, budgetary, economic policies between European and national level.

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