Human Capital, Skills & Talent Mobility

Affordable Housing Plan

Planned for Q1 2026.

The plan will deliver EU-level support to help national, regional and local authorities provide affordable, sustainable homes, while respecting subsidiarity. It addresses supply–demand imbalances, high building costs, permitting bottlenecks and skills shortages that drive up prices. Measures will mobilise investment (including an EIB platform), allow more cohesion funding for housing, adapt State-aid rules, and link renovations to the Social Climate Fund. The plan will accelerate permitting and procurement, improve rental-market functioning, and provide technical assistance so projects can scale quickly and fairly across regions and cities.

Quality Jobs Roadmap

Planned for Q4 2026.

Developed with EU social partners in 2025, the Quality Jobs Roadmap will set a coherent EU strategy to raise job quality alongside competitiveness. It will back fair wages, high health-and-safety standards, decent working conditions, work-life balance, gender equality and wider collective bargaining; strengthen enforcement of work-related rights; and support access to training and fair job-to-job transitions, drawing on the European Pillar of Social Rights. It will align with the Competitiveness Compass, Union of Skills and the Clean Industrial Deal so decarbonisation creates attractive jobs and regional cohesion, and may announce targeted legislative and non-legislative actions with robust monitoring and evaluation.

Quantum Europe Strategy (Skills-Related Policy Initiatives)

Planned between 2025 and 2030.

The Strategy will launch a European Quantum Skills Academy - initially virtual, then networked - linked to Quantum Competence Clusters and Semiconductors Competence Centres. It will host a Quantum Talent Portal, fellowship schemes and “teach-the-teacher” modules to broaden participation and close the gender gap. Complementary actions include a Digital Europe–funded Quantum Apprenticeship pilot and returnships; Advanced Digital Skills Competitions from 2026; an EIC Researchers-in-Residence scheme placing scientists in quantum startups; and a European Quantum Talent Mobility Programme with fellowships for non-EU PhDs and professionals. Skills intelligence will track needs via the European Skills Intelligence Observatory, ensuring training aligns with fast-evolving industrial demand.

2030 Roadmap on the Future of Digital Education and Skills and its AI in Education

Planned for Q4 2025.

The roadmap will steer Europe’s digital education transformation, building on the review of the Digital Education Action Plan. It will promote equal access, build a digital education ecosystem, and forge partnerships with EU-based EdTech. An accompanying AI in Education initiative will set an AI literacy framework, support safe, ethical AI uptake in classrooms, and address online safety, wellbeing and misinformation. The Roadmap complements the Union of Skills and the STEM Plan, enlarging Europe’s AI-capable talent pool. The Digital Competence Framework will be updated by end-2025 to reflect emerging technologies. It will strengthen teacher capacity through targeted support and guidance.

Basic Skills Action Plan

The plan will lift literacy, numeracy, science, digital and citizenship skills, tackling underachievement. A Basic Skills Support Scheme will pilot interventions with EU funding, from early identification and tutoring to school-level improvement plans. A European Innovative School Award will recognise innovation and partnerships with businesses and local authorities. The Commission will pilot university–business partnerships via Erasmus+, Digital Europe and EIT to train for shortage sectors and co-develop micro-credentials. The plan will expand the European Alliance for Apprenticeships to 700 pledges and streamline the Pact for Skills (linking EU Skills Academies, CoVEs and European Universities) to double 25-million upskilling commitments.

Blue Carpet Initiative

Planned for 2026.

The initiative is a comprehensive package to attract and retain highly skilled talent, combining entrepreneurship education via the EIT and an academic career framework rewarding commercialisation; harmonised stock-option treatment; a recommendation to remove tax obstacles for remote cross-border employees; and a Fair Labour Mobility Package with social-security clarity and a Skills Portability Initiative. It adds an EU Visa Strategy leveraging the Students & Researchers and Blue Card Directives, fast-track permits for founders, Blue Card promotion, pilot Multipurpose Legal Gateway Offices, and “train-to-hire” Talent Partnerships. Complementary measures will review integration and family-reunification support and enhance EURAXESS services.

Choose Europe Package

Choose Europe will co-fund recruitment programmes that link MSCA grants to long-term positions, tackling precarity and drawing top researchers to Europe, including in AI. It sits within a wider talent-magnet approach: a new Visa Strategy to better use the Students & Researchers and Blue Card Directive, pilots of Multipurpose Legal Gateway Offices, and an EU Talent Pool plus a 2030 target to host at least 350,000 non-EU tertiary graduates annually. Complementary quantum actions include a European Quantum Talent Mobility Programme and a Pilot for Researchers-in-Residence in quantum startups. Together, this integrates R&I careers, mobility and immigration tools into one offer.

EU Talent Pool IT Platform

It will be an EU-wide, voluntary platform matching employers with third-country jobseekers for EU-wide shortage occupations, complementing Talent Partnerships. It reuses EURES components, provides immigration and qualification-recognition guidance, and offers National Contact Point support to improve transparency and matching. A Secretariat, Steering Group and common technical standards ensure governance, interoperability and monitoring. Once adopted by co-legislators, the platform will be set up and rolled out across participating Member States, with a harmonised shortage list and safeguards against unfair recruitment. The initiative is part of the Union of Skills agenda to boost legal pathways and address labour shortages while protecting fair work.

European Competence Framework for Academic Staff

Planned for 2026.

The Commission will introduce a common EU framework that elevates teaching excellence in higher education and aligns academic roles with Europe’s skills agenda. Complementing ResearchComp, it will define core competences for innovative pedagogy, student-centred and AI-enabled learning, curriculum co-creation with employers, and the design of lifelong learning pathways using micro-credentials. The framework will support recognition and career progression for educators, encourage provision through European Universities alliances, and strengthen links to labour-market needs. It will give institutions a reference to recruit, develop and reward academic staff who drive inclusion, quality and impact.

European Fair Transition Observatory

Planned for Q1 2026.

The Commission will set up an EU-wide Observatory to hard-wire fairness into the clean transition. It will develop standardised indicators, collect best practices and enable data sharing to track impacts on employment, quality jobs, job-to-job transitions, reskilling, investment needs, social protection and access to essential services. It will anchor transparent dialogue with social partners, regions, cities and civil society, and feed reforms to improve delivery of the Just Transition Fund and inform future instruments under the next MFF. Complementary action includes a European Affordable Housing Plan to ease workforce mobility in metropolitan areas.

European Skills High Level Board

Announced for 2025.

The Board will be the steering hub of the Union of Skills, chaired by the Commission and uniting business leaders, education and training providers, and social partners. It delivers cross-sector insight and guidance on skills issues, drawing on evidence from the European Skills Intelligence Observatory and aligning action with the competitiveness steering mechanism. It will support a new EU-27 Recommendation on human capital and inform country-specific recommendations, while taking into account the Digital Decade Board’s advice on digital basic skills. With a dynamic, agile set-up, the Board can convene stakeholders quickly and accelerate implementation across sectors.

European Strategy for Vocational Education and Training (VET)

Planned for 2026.

The Strategy upgrades VET into a first-choice pathway for competitiveness, cohesion and generational renewal. It tackles skills shortages by modernising curricula with employers, expanding work-based learning, and boosting mobility and internationalisation (via Erasmus+ and a pilot European VET diploma/label in 2025–26). It raises excellence and inclusiveness, combats gender stereotypes, and sets a 2030 STEM target: at least 45% of initial medium-level VET enrolment, with one in four women. Centres of Vocational Excellence will scale transnational partnerships and drive national reforms, while recognition frameworks ease cross-border learning and careers, making VET as valued as higher education across the Union.

European Universities & School Alliances

Planned for 2026 / 2027.

The programme will knit Europe’s education and innovation fabric into a single, high-performing network. Universities alliances will launch joint programmes (especially in AI, quantum, semiconductors, data and cybersecurity) under a European degree/label, backed by an EU legal status and an investment pathway that secures long-term cooperation, shared infrastructures, and partnerships with business and research. In schools, a 2026 pilot will create European School Alliances to boost pupil and teacher mobility, enable cross-border cooperation between schools and authorities, and serve as testbeds for pedagogy, curricula and competence frameworks. Alliances will help schools become learning organisations focused on mastering basic skills.

Fair Labour Mobility Package

Planned for 2026.

The Package will remove frictions to cross-border work while safeguarding rights, making Europe’s labour market more efficient. It will propose a European Social Security Pass for digital verification of entitlements, streamline posting procedures, and clarify social-security coordination for cross-border remote work. The package will strengthen the European Labour Authority’s mandate and data capabilities to improve enforcement and joint inspections. A Skills Portability Initiative will simplify recognition of qualifications and interoperable digital credentials, including for third-country nationals. Together, these measures cut administrative burden for employers and workers, enable service provision, and support talent circulation across the Single Market.

Initiative to Increasing Accessibility of Higher Education

Planned for 2026.

The initiative will open universities to more learners and ages, matching rising labour-market demand while strengthening student wellbeing and targeted support services. It will help institutions implement the 2024 Bologna principles on wider access and the social dimension, with practical guidance for staff and governance reform to make inclusiveness a core mission. Complementary measures will boost entrepreneurship education through dedicated, including cross-border, modules; and connect with EU work on automatic recognition, interoperable credentials, and a European degree/label to ease mobility and credit portability.

Intergenerational Fairness Strategy

Planned for Q1 2026.

The Commission will present the first EU-wide strategy to embed long-term, intergenerational perspectives across policymaking. It will: (1) strengthen intergenerational democratic participation and scrutiny; (2) tackle cross-cutting challenges (i.e. climate, housing, fiscal sustainability, skills and lifelong learning) through an intergenerational lens; and (3) empower all ages, combating ageism and protecting children’s rights. The strategy is being co-created via a 2025 four-phase process and may include a monitoring tool for intergenerational fairness. It will align with the Union of Skills agenda and related education actions, ensuring no generation is left behind. It will propose metrics and mainstream youth participation.

Recommendation on Human Capital

Announced for this term.

The Commission will introduce a recommendation on education and skills within the European Semester to anchor the Union of Skills in the competitiveness steering mechanism. It will be underpinned by the European Skills Intelligence Observatory and advised by a European Skills High-Level Board, ensuring timely, granular evidence and guidance. The recommendation will target structural reforms across the skills pipeline (i.e. basic education, VET, higher education and lifelong learning) linking them to labour-market needs. It will inform Council debates, the Joint Employment Report and country reports/CSRs, and promote whole-of-government coordination across education, employment and economic portfolios, nationally.

Skills Academies

The EU will deploy a targeted network of Skills Academies anchored by a flagship AI Skills Academy and complemented by a Quantum Skills Academy, a Cybersecurity Skills Academy (with an Industry–Academia network and cyber-campuses), and Net-Zero Industry Academies. Academies will offer one-stop training, apprenticeships and fellowships, returnships for women, and competitions. Building on Large-Scale Partnerships, a rollout will serve strategic sectors: defence, automotive, grids, wind, food, AI, quantum, virtual worlds and semiconductors. Coordinated under the Union of Skills and linked to the Clean Industrial Deal, the EIT will equip 1 million learners by 2028, with gender and mobility targets across Europe.

Skills Portability Initiative

Planned for Q3 2026.

The initiative will remove barriers to cross-border work by making skills and qualifications usable across the Single Market. It will consider a legislative proposal to ease mobility and promote common EU formats for interoperable digital credentials, building on EQF, Europass and ESCO. Recognition in regulated professions will be expanded and modernised using digital tools, while simpler common rules will be explored to recognise third-country nationals’ skills. In parallel, the EU will develop a framework for automatic recognition of qualifications and learning periods in school, VET and higher education, and examine accession to the Lisbon Recognition Convention.

STEM Education Strategic Plan

The EU will reverse declining STEM performance and close talent gaps by 2030 through enrolment targets (45% of initial VET in STEM, 32% tertiary, and 5% ICT PhDs) with gender goals (≥25% women in VET, 40% tertiary, 33% ICT PhDs). It will modernise curricula via a STEM competence framework, pilot STEM education centres, and launch Advanced Digital Skills Competitions. Universities and Centres of Vocational Excellence will offer joint programmes and micro-credentials aligned with industry, moving toward a European degree for engineers. A Teachers & Trainers Agenda and actions under the Union of Skills will boost capacity and attractiveness.