Excerpts from the Communication:
This Communication responds to the requests from Member States to launch a process of cooperation which will help them address the two-fold challenge outlined above: to provide access to child care and education for all, but also to raise the quality of their provision through well integrated services that build on a joint vision of the role of ECEC, of the most effective curricular frameworks and of the staff competences and governance arrangements necessary to deliver it.
Examples of some of the best practice in the world in ECEC can already be found within EU Member States. The Commission intends to use the open method of Coordination to help Member States identify, analyse and spread effective policy approaches in ECEC and transfer
them to their own contexts. It will use existing instruments such as the Lifelong Learning Programme and the Structural Funds to support innovation, staff development and infrastructure in ECEC. It will also use the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Development, to support research, analysis and the development of evidence on the most effective approaches to ECEC in the EU and elsewhere.