A major challenge for education systems today is not just to equip young people with the knowledge and skills required to respond to labour market demands in a fast-changing environment, but also to help them acquire the knowledge, values and capacity to be responsible citizens in increasingly diverse and polarised societies.
In Resolution 2123 (2016) and Recommendation 2093 (2016) “Culture and Democracy”, the Parliamentary Assembly urged for much stronger recognition of the role that culture can play in upholding democratic principles and values and building inclusive societies, and recommended developing policy guidance on how member States could better integrate cultural activities into the education system.
More recently, in Resolution 2584 (2025) and Recommendation 2290 (2025) “Multiperspectivity in remembrance and history education for democratic citizenship”, the Assembly recommended introducing education for democratic citizenship as a distinct compulsory subject and incorporating competences for democratic culture in other relevant subjects such as history teaching during all stages of formal education. In terms of methodology, it recommended integrating the Council of Europe Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture in national curricula and building synergies between formal and non-formal education.
Pursuing these proposals, the Assembly could recommend co-operation between different sectors of the Council of Europe to develop innovative approaches and guidance to member States to facilitate and promote “co-creation” of educational projects through partnerships between schools, cultural institutions and individual artists, which could offer new ways for young people to engage in a democratic society where culture plays a key role and develop required competences by dealing with difficult, sensitive, and controversial issues in an interactive, creative, more sensory appealing and less formal context.