Today marks the 10th anniversary of the launch of the Youth Wiki, Europe’s comparative youth policy database. This milestone coincides with the 45th anniversary of its older sibling, Eurydice, the knowledge base of education systems. To mark the occasion, Commission en direct spoke to head of sector Peter Birch and youth policy analyst Giulia Paolini from the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA)’s Platforms, Studies and Analysis unit, to learn more about how these initiatives evolved and what lies ahead.

For those not familiar with it, can you tell us about the Eurydice Network?

PB: Eurydice is a network of ministries and national authorities responsible for education spread over 39 European countries. It provides official data on how education systems are organised and how policies on education are delivered at national level, giving a European perspective that goes beyond individual national contexts.

The network is managed by EACEA, where our unit provides European comparative analyses, managing and executing the whole process from the design of research to publication – thanks to a pool of policy analysts.

As one of the long-standing instruments for cooperation in education at European level, Eurydice has spent more than four decades providing data on education structures, policies and reforms. Thanks to its work, we have descriptions of national systems, comparative studies on key topics, and a wide range of data and visual tools that help explain developments at all levels of education systems – from early childhood education and care, through school, to higher education and adult learning.

The network has progressively broadened its scope, deepened its analyses, and responded to emerging policy priorities such as digital and citizenship education, equity and basic skills.

In recent years, Eurydice has also developed more intuitive and powerful tools to visualise data, enhancing access and use of its data for policy discussions. This ongoing evolution has been supported by the close and constructive cooperation between our unit in EACEA and the Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (DG EAC), ensuring that Eurydice remains relevant for policymakers and responsive to evolving education priorities.

How has the network evolved over the past 45 years?

PB: When Eurydice was created in 1980, its work relied mostly on printed reports and very manual data exchange. Today, it provides both qualitative and quantitative evidence, offers interactive tools, and responds to a much broader range of policy questions.

The way countries collaborate has also changed. The community has become more interconnected, more responsive, and faster at producing evidence. Digitalisation has played a big role in that, enabling real-time exchanges, quicker validation processes, and more dynamic publications and information displays via interactive web-based tools.

“The vision is clear: to reinforce Eurydice and Youth Wiki’s role as sources for trustworthy, high-quality evidence on education and youth policies across Europe”

Another major change is visibility. Eurydice’s work is now used widely across the Commission, by national authorities, researchers, journalists, and international organisations. Its analyses increasingly feed into major EU initiatives and publications such as the Education and Training Monitor, the European Education Area, and the Union of Skills.

What is the Youth Wiki, and what are some of its biggest achievements?

GP: The Youth Wiki is an online database illustrating the national youth policies of European countries. It’s organised through a network of national correspondents from the 34 European countries that take part in the project. They collect information on youth policies in their countries and report it on the pages of the Youth Wiki website.

The Youth Wiki was established in 2015 to close a knowledge gap: at the time, information on national youth policies was limited, scattered across different outlets and hard to find. By gathering all information on a single platform, it has become an essential instrument of evidence supporting policymaking in the field of youth. Its themes and scope are developed in close cooperation with DG EAC, to ensure its political relevance. Indeed, its role as data provider is recognised in many Council conclusions and recommendations.

Over time, the information provided by the Youth Wiki has been used to produce comparative studies on topical issues: young people’s mental health, youth mainstreaming, and youth access to housing.

By the way, a new report on the challenges encountered by young people in accessing housing and the solutions put in place by European countries is in the pipeline, and will be published next year.

All in all, the Youth Wiki has contributed to strengthening European cooperation in the field of youth, affirming youth policy as one of the pillars of social policy in Europe.

How do you see the future of the Youth Wiki and Eurydice?

GP: The Youth Wiki will continue to grow and expand its scope, especially with the new EU Youth Strategy. There will be more in-depth reports and comparative studies, as well as a revamp of the website, to make it more visually appealing and to present data more effectively. So, in the next few years we will see our project expand and reach further to provide policy-relevant data and analyses.

PB: This evolution goes hand in hand with the future priorities of Eurydice. As the demand for reliable, authoritative and comparable data continues to rise, especially in a context where misinformation and fake news spread quickly, Eurydice’s mission is more essential than ever. Our work will focus on making data increasingly open, accessible, and user-friendly, so that policymakers, researchers, educators, and citizens can easily understand and use it.

The vision for the next few years is clear: to reinforce Eurydice and Youth Wiki’s role as sources for trustworthy, high-quality evidence on education and youth policies across Europe, supporting better decision-making and deeper public debate.