​At this week's meeting of the Commission for Social Policy, Education, Employment, Research and Culture (SEDEC), EA Group members Karolien Grosemans and Declan McDonnell delivered strong messages on three key debates: education, AgoraEU and the protection of young people online.

In the exchange with Commissioner Glenn Micallef, Karolien Grosemans underlined that excellence in education is essential to equip the next generation for an increasingly complex world. She stressed that young people face rapid technological, social and geopolitical change, and that the European Union (EU) must respond with ambition. “Our response should be a message of hope: through education, education, education," she said. “Giving young people excellent education is the best gift we can offer, helping them become resilient citizens ready to navigate an extraordinary world."

Declan McDonnell welcomed the draft opinion on AgoraEU, the next EU programme for culture, media, democracy, equality, rights and civic participation. He supported the call for strong involvement of local and regional authorities and highlighted the importance of linguistic diversity as a core element of European identity. “Linguistic diversity is part of the European soul," he noted, urging the EU institutions to follow the Committee's example in allowing the use of languages such as Catalan, spoken by more than 8 million EU citizens.

The SEDEC Commission also debated the protection of children and young people in the digital sphere. Grosemans called for child‑friendly safety‑by‑design measures while rejecting unrealistic calls for a full ban on social media. She warned that some platforms expose European children to content designed to reduce attention and learning. “We need to teach our children to deal with social media safely and healthily," she argued, urging the EU to take a firmer stance where necessary.

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