European Trade Union Committee for Education

At its recent General Assembly meeting, the SIRIUS Network voted to accept an application from ETUCE to become a full member. The SIRIUS Network, founded in March 2017, brings together 20 national and EU stakeholders active in refugee and migrant education. The network has the following objectives:

• sharing resources and knowledge at national, regional and European levels, when there are relevant and internationally related to the Association’s aims and mission;
• cooperating with other members of the network on joint projects;
• contributing to further development of the common Association’s strategy;
• disseminating and encouraging the use of materials and resources developed by the network and its members.

Full membership of the SIRIUS Network means that, amongst other benefits, ETUCE will having voting rights at future SIRIUS General Assembly meetings, have an input on future activities, be briefed on developments on EU migration policies and be able to join SIRIUS projects and initiatives as well as receiving assistance with our own projects.

ETUCE and its member organisations are committed to migrant and refugee inclusion in education, particularly with the resolution adopted at the ETUCE Conference in 2016 on “Education Trade Unions on the Refugee Situation in Europe: Promoting Education as the Key to Integration and Inclusion”. This was followed up with the launch of the project, in collaboration with EFEE, on European social partners in education promoting migrant and refugee integration.

Commenting on ETUCE joining the SIRIUS Network, European Director Susan Flocken said “We are pleased that our application to join the SIRIUS Network has been accepted and we look forward to cooperating with the Network and its member organisations to continue our work on ensuring that education becomes more accessible and inclusive for all those from migrant, asylum seeker and refugee backgrounds.”