The report, based on an external evaluation, concludes that the Europass initiative is achieving its objectives as a mobility tool for citizens and is relevant to their needs, helping them to make their competences and qualifications easier to understand and more acceptable in both learning contexts and the labour market.

Positive results are confirmed by the growing numbers of visitors to the Europass portal (in average 12 000 daily visits in 2007) and active users of its services, with 3 million Europass CVs having been created online by July 2008. 

To follow up the evaluation, and improve the support that Europass provides for citizens'mobility, the Commission plans therefore to strengthen this dimension, particularly linked to the implementation of the European Qualifications Framework (EQF). The Commission will expand the Europass CV into a more comprehensive instrument, supported by new self-assessment tools addressing skills acquired through all forms of learning.

The evaluation’s main recommendations to improve the relevance and effectiveness of Europass are:

• Europass is already particularly relevant for learners' mobility and development action is now needed on occupational mobility, namely international job mobility.
• The Europass CV is highly valued and should be developed further, by improving its template and offering a shorter version, in consultation with employers, recruitment agencies and guidance centres.
• Promotion at national level should be intensified through cooperation with guidance centres and businesses.
• More examples and guidelines on the use of all Europass documents should be provided on the portal.
• The Europass Diploma Supplement should be developed further to take learning outcomes better into account.
• Complementarity of Europass with the education and training programmes should be intensified.
• Cooperation with other transparency developments should be ensured.

The Commission welcomes the first external evaluation of Europass. Its findings suggest that implementation in the first years of operation was broadly successful, cost-effective and focused on the right priorities.

What is Europass?

Europass is a direct service to citizens, which aims at helping them make their qualifications and competences clearly and easily understood throughout Europe. It is a coordinated portfolio of documents, which in particular improves the communication between job applicants and employers, regardless of borders. Europass also helps citizens and organisations focus on the actual skills and competences, for application and recruitment purposes as well as for more general development purposes.