The Resolution of the Council and of the representatives of the Member States meeting within the Council on Strengthening Policies, Systems and Practices in the field of Guidance throughout life in Europe (May 2004) invites Member States to "seek to ensure effective co-operation and co-ordination between providers of guidance at national, regional and local levels in the provision of guidance services."
In recent years, a strong degree of political momentum has been reached in the field of guidance. Since the Resolution on Lifelong Guidance of the EU Council (2004), much has been achieved in the Member-States in improving access to guidance and the quality of guidance systems. Still, much needs to be done. The emergence of a knowledge-based society requires a paradigm shift in guidance and calls for strengthening the role, quality and coordination of career guidance services to support learning at all ages and in a range of settings. It is important that the momentum of development within Member States be sustained. The space and quality of such development can be significantly be enhanced by continued cooperation at European level.
To support policy development in guidance, in December 2002 the Commission created an Expert Group on lifelong guidance, including officials from education and labour ministries, representatives from the European social partners, as well as European and international bodies. At the end of 2005, the Commission initiated a discussion with its Expert Group for Lifelong Guidance on what would constitute a suitable mechanism to take forward work on guidance at EU level. Their conclusion was that a European network would be best to ensure a broad participation of Member states, and that a network would not be credible or sustainable unless it were strongly Member-State- driven and built upon an appropriate institutional framework at national level involving relevant ministries and other bodies responsible for education and labour-force issues. Fewer than half the Member States have national guidance forums or national co-ordination steering groups bringing together education and employment. Those that do are at very different stages of development, and most have been in place less than three years or are still at the planning stage. Much of the desirable developments flagged by the Council Resolution can only be achieved if the structures supporting policy and systems development are strengthened.
A first exchange of views on the future mandate and activities of a possible European Guidance network took place among Member States' representatives at the “Finnish EU Presidency Conference on Lifelong Guidance Policies and Systems: Building the stepping stones” (November 2006). The Conference workshop conclusions stressed that the fragility of lifelong guidance policies at national level called for a strong and stable mechanism at European level to encourage more sustainable development at national level and support both policy development and implementation. This mechanism should build upon, and in due course replace, the work of the Expert Group for Lifelong Guidance. However, it is clear that it can only be effective if a sufficient number of Member States are committed to making a success of it.
The Finnish EU Presidency Conference workshop conclusions stressed that the fragility of lifelong guidance policies at national level called for a strong and stable mechanism at European level to encourage more sustainable development at national level and support both policy development and implementation. The participating Member States came to the conclusion that the most effective way to take the work forward would be to set up a network of countries interested in working together to develop lifelong guidance systems.
Within a follow-up meeting in Brussels, March 9, 2007 the participating Member States expressed a need to move forward from analysis to a more active phase of assisting those Member States which are interested in developing the lifelong dimension of their respective guidance systems in the context of the 2004 Council Resolution on Lifelong Guidance. The inaugural meeting of the European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network was held in Helsinki, on 7-8 May 2007. All the 23 European Countries participating this meeting agreed to establish a European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network and expressed their willingness to participate in the network as members or observers. Also the European and international bodies present expressed their commitment to continue their support for and involvement in the process. The work of the ELGPN builds upon the principles agreed in the inaugural meeting.
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