The «Education, Youth and Culture» Council brings together ministers responsible for education, culture, youth and communication three or four times a year. Its objective is to promote quality education and encourage life-long learning, by articulating education and training and including higher education in its various areas. The Council is also responsible for the development of a policy promoting cultural diversity among Member States.

The Community aims at contributing for the development of learning and the diffusion of languages, by developing the European dimension in education and training. It tries to improve the knowledge and diffusion of culture and preserve the European heritage of cultural relevance; to favour students' and teachers' mobility, by promoting the mutual recognition of diplomas and periods of learning; to stimulate the cooperation of learning and vocational schools among themselves and, especially in the area of training, with the business world; to improve vocational training at all levels, in order to facilitate the insertion of citizens into the labour market, their adaptation to industrial change and their possible professional recycling; finally, to stimulate artistic and literary creation, including  the audiovisual sector.

- Priorities of the Portuguese Presidency for Education 
- Trio programme of the German, Portuguese and Slovenian presidencies for education (pdf format)
- Priorities of the Portuguese Presidency for Youth
- Priorities of the Portuguese Presidency for Culture
- Priorities of the Portuguese Presidency for Sports