ABSTRACT
One of the oddities of international lifelong learning over the past couple of decades has been the European Union (EU) enthusiastic distancing of itself from what Europe has contributed through education to western civilization. Employment and the needs of business and the economy provided the overriding purpose of education; as the economy was permanently changing, so education must be permanently flexible. European policy, and EU policy, of course does have its own particular features: a global consensus on policy does not mean global uniformity. The education of adults was hit by vocationalism in the 1990s. Policy development for a learning society in England could have drawn on rich traditions in further and higher education (HR), and perhaps especially in adult education. The Paris Declaration was, in fact, issued in the name not only of education ministers, but of the European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport.
