All the work that the European Commission is doing is to outline a solid, competitive perspective from which people can benefit, in a rather turbulent context, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for Social Rights and Skills, Quality Jobs and Preparedness Roxana Minzatu said on Friday at the second edition of the Concordia Summit 2026.

'The whole discussion and all the work we are doing in the European Commission is to outline a solid perspective, a competitive perspective, but one that benefits people, employees, citizens, in a rather turbulent context, both from an economic perspective, and from a security and geopolitical perspective for the European continent. And if we talk about people, - and Mario Draghi said it - it is important to understand that we are talking about an absolutely essential capital for economic success. Mario Draghi said that European competitiveness today depends less on the relative costs of labour and more on the knowledge and skills of workers,' said Minzatu.

She conveyed to the participants in the event, mostly businesspeople and representatives of employers' associations, a message in favour of human capital.

'My basic message is that we must also talk about the other capital: people, human capital. I don't particularly like to refer to investment in people, human resources, talent, in these terms, but without a doubt that any company that wants to launch and succeed needs both money and human resources. Romania, on various models, of course has managed within the European Union, with a lot of support from the EU, to achieve economic performance and, at the same time, of course, to raise the standard of living for Romanians.'

Minzatu also talked about the latest steps of the European Commission in supporting human capital.

'Yesterday we launched the skills package, which refers to four important elements: how do we stop this accelerated decline of basic skills among our young people? The PISA tests show almost a decline for the entire European continent - with small exceptions, Ireland, Estonia - in reading, mathematics, science, digital skills, and the first three are important for any innovation capacity of any country and any nation. The decline has been going on for over ten years, and after the pandemic, at an accelerated pace. In the European Union, Romania, unfortunately, has one of the most accelerated declines. How do we stop this trend? The package we presented yesterday proposes a series of solutions for the member states.'

She added that the EU supports member states with funding, but also with political direction and cooperation mechanisms, 'so that we help schools, teachers to prioritise everything that means basic skills.'

'Regardless of the expectations we have in the area of automation, artificial intelligence, in the way of teaching or learning, basic skills will determine to what extent our citizens, workers, entrepreneurs will remain cognitively resilient, people fully capable of having critical thinking and functioning in the economy, in democracy. So, this direction is very important, and it is found in the education package.'

In her opinion, another direction refers to the consolidation of the teaching career.

'Everything we want to do in education, whether we are talking about compulsory education, or whether we are talking about qualification, requalification, requires having a motivated, sufficient teaching staff, in which to invest both in terms of the availability of human resources, but also in their training. And in this package we ask the member states to take measures in all these directions: beginner teachers, their training, their support, the debureaucratisation of classroom activity, how they manage artificial intelligence in the classroom.'

According to Minzatu, the third very important direction is vocational and technical education extremely important for the business environment.

'It would be normal to prioritise the modernisation of the quality of vocational and technical education, partnerships between vocational schools and the business environment. We proposed in the education package that through the future European competitiveness fund we should also have a component dedicated to partnerships between the business environment and vocational schools, cross-border, on value chains, on the four strategic directions for the European economy, everything that means clean technologies. From renewables to electric cars, we can talk about a whole series of areas, the digital area, AI, the biotechnology area, the defence area. It is important to encourage such approaches. But, beyond that, Romania has its own governance over the vocational and technical education system. We have supported with substantial European funds the modernisation of this education system.'

She added that the fourth direction of the education package refers to artificial intelligence and technology.

'As far as social platforms are concerned, the European Union has clearly said that they are an instrument that generates addiction, that harms children's mental health. And then it proposed restricting access to social media, but up to the age of 15. But, beyond that, how do we help them use, critically and effectively, both students and teachers, artificial intelligence? In this regard, we have proposed a consortium that will be formed between the member states. Eight have already joined the consortium for digital education, which will work to develop AI technologies and tools dedicated to the educational process, anchored in European values, with data protection, which can be accessible to any school, to any teacher, free of charge and to be, in the end, also an ecosystem that supports companies in the European educational technology area to develop.'

The European official mentioned that the European Commission is working intensively for competitiveness.

'We are working on all fronts for everything that means Europe's competitiveness. Beyond human capital, it is about energy prices, it is about access to raw materials, it is about access to finance, about a fragmentation of capital markets in the European Union and the need to reduce this fragmentation,' said Minzatu.

At the second edition of the Concordia Summit 2026, business leaders, policymakers, regulators and supervisors and European partners discuss how Romania is transforming its strengths (geostrategic position, energy and agricultural resources, IT industry) into investments, exports and well-paid jobs. AGERPRES (RO - editing by: Cristian Anghelache; EN - writing by: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu)