My first professional experience was at the European Commission. Like many who come to Brussels, I arrived with a deep belief in the European project. I had studied European economic integration in Brussels and Paris thanks to a scholarship, convinced that cooperation across nations could deliver not only prosperity, but also democracy, equity, and shared progress. Working inside the Commission felt like a way to contribute to something larger than any one country.

Today, that belief still stands. But Europe faces a growing contradiction.

Every year on 9 May, Europe celebrates its founding promise and values: peace, democracy, solidarity, and opportunity. Yet across the continent, inequality persists, political polarization is rising, and trust in institutions is weakening. Too many young people feel disconnected from opportunity, from each other, and from the future Europe is trying to build.

At the same time, Europe is asking more and more of its education systems. Schools are expected not only to prepare students for the labour market, but also to respond to democratic fragility, digital transformation, mental health challenges, and growing social fragmentation.

And yet, as the European Union prepares its next Multiannual Financial Framework, education risks being treated as secondary to Europe’s “real” priorities: security, competitiveness, and the energy and digital transitions.

This would be a strategic mistake. Education is not competing with these priorities. It underpins all of them.

Public investment in education across the EU remains below pre-pandemic levels despite mounting pressure on schools and widening inequalities. Around 3 million young Europeans still leave education early, while students from disadvantaged and migrant backgrounds remain significantly less likely to succeed. At the same time, one additional year of education increases individual earnings by around 7% in Europe, underlining the long-term economic returns of sustained investment.

The debate Europe now faces is therefore not only whether education matters, but what kind of education system Europe is willing to invest in.

For too long, education reform has focused primarily on what students know. Today’s challenges require systems that also develop who students become: young people with the agency, awareness, connectedness, and commitment to contribute to their communities and to Europe’s future.

Across Europe, this shift is already taking shape. Through Teach For All’s network partners in almost 20 countries in the region, educators and alumni of these organizations are working not only inside classrooms, but across policy, civil society, and the labour market to expand educational opportunity. In Estonia, for example, a Noored Kooli alumna now works within government, helping bring classroom realities into national education reform. In Germany, a Teach First Deutschland alumna is helping advance career readiness through the Berlin Chamber of Commerce.

These examples point to something larger: Education systems change when leadership is shared across classrooms, institutions, communities, and governments. At Teach For All, we refer to this as collective leadership: diverse actors working together toward educational equity and societal progress.

My recent engagements in Brussels with European Union institutions reinforced how urgently this conversation is evolving. Across discussions spanning education, employment, and enlargement portfolios, a common understanding is emerging: Europe’s education challenge is not only about skills, but also about leadership, resilience, and social cohesion.

This is also where the European level matters most. While education systems remain largely national, the challenges they face are increasingly European: labour mobility, demographic change, economic transformation, and democratic fragmentation do not stop at borders. Instruments such as Erasmus+, the European Social Fund Plus, and the EU’s external action are uniquely positioned to connect systems, scale innovation, and support countries in ways that no single Member State can achieve alone.

As negotiations over the next EU budget accelerate, Europe faces difficult choices. But underinvesting in education will not make those choices easier. It will deepen the very challenges Europe is trying to solve.

As someone whose belief in Europe was shaped in classrooms, through studying and living across borders, and eventually inside the European Commission itself, I still believe Europe’s greatest strength lies in its ability to turn shared values into shared action.

As the European Union prepares the choices that will shape its next decade, we should remember that Europe’s future competitiveness, cohesion, and democratic resilience will not be built only in markets, ministries, or summits. It will also be shaped every day in classrooms across Europe.