Eurostat published its latest date on progress in reducing early school leaving and increasing graduates in Europe. According to these data, Member States are making progress, but wide disparities remain and it is far from certain that the EU will meet its 2020 goals. These goals are to reduce early school leaving rates to less than 10% and increase the share of young people with degree-level qualifications to at least 40%.

The latest figures on early school leaving published by Eurostat show that the share of early school leavers now stands at 13.5%, down from 14.1% in 2010 and from 17.6% in 2000. In 2011, 34.6% of 30-34 year old in the EU had a degree, compared to 33.5% in the previous year and 22.4% in 2000. In spite of these figures, the Commission is concerned that this is not a result of reforms which will have a long-term impact but rather a by-product of high youth unemployment which means more young people are staying longer in education and training.

With regard to the data by Member States, 11 Member States have surpassed the 10% benchmark. Malta (33.5%), Spain (26.5%) and Portugal (23.2%) have the highest rates of school drop-outs, but have made a lot of progress in recent years. Other Member States that have reduced early school leaving include Cyprus (11.2%), Latvia (11.8%) and Bulgaria (12.8%). 13 Member States have higher education attainment rates above the 40% headline target. Among those with lower attainment levels, Slovenia (37.9%), Latvia (35.7%), Hungary (28.1%), Portugal (26.1%), the Czech Republic (23.8%) and Romania (20.4%) all saw year-on-year increases of over two percentage points. In contrast, Greece (28.9%), Austria (23.8%) and Italy (20.3%) achieved increases of only half a percentage point or less and Bulgaria (27.3%) and Malta (21.1%) registered a fall in their higher education attainment rate.

The European Commission presented a set of country-specific recommendations to Member States on reforms to increase stability, growth and employment across the EU on 30 May 2012. Six countries (Denmark, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Malta and Spain) received recommendations to address early school leaving, while seven countries (Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Latvia and Slovakia) had recommendations on higher education.