With the Lisbon (2000) and the Copenhagen Process (2002) the European Union set the goal to become the most competitive and most dynamic knowledge-based economic area of the world (Lisbon), inter alia through enhanced European co-operation in vocational education and training (VET). In the Copenhagen Declaration the following priorities have been set: strengthening of the European dimension in VET; improvement of transparency, information and counselling; recognition of competences and qualifications, including non-formal and informal learning; cooperation in the field of quality assurance. This was the starting point for a number of so called “EU transparency instruments”; today we find them as “mobility and lifelong learning instruments” in official papers.
