Strange encounters on the road to lifelong learning: the European economic community meets permanent education in 1973

This paper examines policy formation on education in the European Economic Community during the early 1970s surrounding the 1973 report For a Community Policy on Education, known as the Janne Report. It examines Community policy-making processes that gave rise to the Janne Report. The text of the Janne Report is analysed with regard to permanent education, paid educational leave, and de-schooling as the fundamental principles for the harmonisation of educational policies. Reception of the Janne Report is examined in the context of expansion of the Community from the six original to nine Member States. The Community’s failure to engage in agreements on paid educational leave as envisaged in the Janne Report is discussed in relation to public debates in some Member States at the time.