RCE-Strategy-development in Europe. At the Global RCE-Conference in Curitiba in May 2010 European RCEs came to the shared opinion that it would be worthwhile to make a profound inventory of common ambitions. This inventory would have to lead to an over-all European vision on ESD, and consequently to a realizable strategy. More specifically the European RCEs wanted to investigate where their vision would coincide with the European Union’s strategy 2013-2020 and possibly reinforce this strategy. This resulted in a EU-session at the Munich European Platform meeting, held in December 2010. European RCEs discussed with a EU-official about the details of the European strategy on ESD and find synergies. This resulted in the general conclusion that the strategic objectives of EU education and training policies are in line with the aims and work of RCEs, especially with regard to realizing life long learning and mobility, improving the quality of education, social cohesion and active citizenship. This discussion in Munich has led to a continued discussion at the European meeting for RCEs , organized and hosted by RCE North East in Newcastle in July 2011. This get-together was initiated to prepare for a productive meeting at the Global RCE-conference in Kerkrade, November 2011. Two intensive days of work made clear that European RCEs in general still work individually, aiming at local or regional challenges to the best of their abilities. Most RCEs try to find their own funding and are not able, due to capacity-constraints, to work out common policies and strategies. Also the way of external communication was generally considered insufficient, reason why RCEs in Europe still do not profile themselves well-enough. It was agreed that Detlev Lindau-Bank and Jane Claricoates would take these conclusions as a starting point for their preparations for the European meetings at Kerkrade in November 2011. That’s why prior to Kerkrade a SWOT-document was distributed to all European RCEs with the request to contribute to the discussion by filling this in. You will find more detailed summaries of the meetings in Curitiba, Munich, Newcastle and of course Kerkrade in the documents that are available at the Web Portal. 

After 5 years of consolidation are many joint ventures were set up under the lead of european RCE or assisted by european RCE. To continue this successful work we will start a new discussion about the european RCE´s contribution to the Global Action Programme and how we can make RCE anymore visible in Europe. 

Detlev Lindau Bank