The informal meeting of higher education ministers took place at the Egmont Palace in Brussels on Thursday 29 February and Friday 1 March 2024. This was an opportunity to look at a key theme for European integration, ie student mobility leading to qualifications.
Student mobility is one of the most unifying projects for the European Union and its citizens. The Erasmus+ program is still one of the most visible European projects for our young people, promoting personal development and helping students to enhance their skills. Over the years, various forums – such as the Bologna Process and the European Education Area developed at the EU level – have addressed the subject, notably to improve transparency between our different education systems while at the same time contributing to their influence.
The Belgian Community Minister for Higher Education took advantage of the informal meeting to officially announce the ratification of the Treaty on the Automatic Mutual Recognition of Higher Education Qualifications by the Netherlands, recently added to the list of countries that have ratified it in their national legislation. Belgium, along with its Benelux partners since 2015, and the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) since 2019, has embarked on a process of the automatic recognition of higher education diploma levels. With the completion of the ratification process, the treaty will take full effect on May 1.
Diploma mobility in the EU: having ambitions for our students (europa.eu)