EU Education Ministers met on 15 February to discuss relevant issues concerning education in the context of the 2013 Annual Growth Survey. In response to the recent Commission communication "Rethinking Education", the Council invited member states to restructure their education systems, for instance creating closer links to labour market. The Council also stressed that there are areas of divergence with the European Parliament's position regarding the proposal for a regulation establishing "Erasmus for all".

The conclusions adopted by EU Education Ministers on investing in education and training, which are a response to the Commission communication "Rethinking Education" presented in November 2012 and to the education aspects of the 2013 Annual Growth Survey, highlight priority areas for education and training reform with particular emphasis on improving overall skills and competence levels in order to boost employability and reduce youth unemployment.

In particular, the Council invited member states to restructure their education systems, for instance creating closer links to labour market; improve vocational education and training and focus it on potential growth areas or areas with skills shortages; identify young people at risk of early school-leaving and provide individualised support; reduce the number of low-skilled adults through access to adult training and lifelong learning; and optimise ICT-supported learning and access to open educational resources.

On the state of play concerning the proposal for a regulation establishing "Erasmus for all": the Union Programme for Education, Training, Youth and Sport, although the Council maintained the overall architecture of the Commission proposal, with emphasis on simplification and on different types of action rather than a purely sectoral approach, it did introduce a number of changes to the text, many of which have since been taken up by the Parliament. The main areas of divergence from the Council's position are the new name for the programme : the YES Europe Programme; the retention of the current 'brand names' for the sub-programmes (Comenius, Erasmus, Leonardo da Vinci, Grundtvig, etc.); the detailed objectives for the education, training and youth chapters; the inclusion of the indicators in (an annex to) the basic act; and the greater use of delegated acts.