A survey and a feasibility study on National Stakeholders' Forum has just been published by EUCIS-LLL. The last research work of the Platform has been focused on National Stakeholders´ Forums, designed to foster concrete cooperation and consultation mechanisms at the national level on lifelong learning strategies in member states and on European cooperation in education and training.

The initiative of National Stakeholders´ Forums was born during the 2011 European Forum. As the participants underlined the lack of stakeholders´ involvement at the local, regional and national levels, they recommended setting up national forums of consultation on European strategies and policies following the example of the European Stakeholders' Forum.

EUCIS-LLL Secretariat started the research with the mapping of all the national members of its European networks, coming up with more than 2000 contacts as potential facilitators of national forums in the member states. A survey on their perception of lifelong learning, European and national policies and consultation mechanisms and the feasibility of those forums has been then initiated among them with more almost 300 answers from all EU countries. 13 key stakeholders that led the same type of initiative shared their practices.

After three months of work, this study (see also annexes) is therefore the concrete expression of EUCIS-LLL´s will to raise awareness and foster a trans-sectorial, multi-stakeholders dialogue on lifelong learning in member states and on European cooperation in education and training. Indeed, coherent and comprehensive lifelong learning strategies to modernise our education & training systems cannot be implemented without coordination mechanisms at the national level to raise awareness and be the vectors of active citizenship.

The European Stakeholders' Forum has proven to be a real success and is soon to become a key element of the ET2020´s contribution to Europe 2020. The National Stakeholders´ Forums are the missing tool to make progress towards new approaches to consultation, create a feeling of shared responsibility and ownership among stakeholders and involve the grassroots level in a genuine structured dialogue with the European institutions.