The European Union is aiming to become “the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth, with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion” (Lisbon Treaty, 2009). The most recent iteration of the objectives of the EU are summarised in “Europe2020”, which in the light of the post-2008 economic crisis and the challenges of global competition, sets out a vision of Europe’s social market economy for the 21st century.
The stated objective is to: “…turn the EU into a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy delivering high levels of employment, productivity and social cohesion”.
To that end, this report discusses an EU-wide student loan facility. Section 1 considers why such an instrument is necessary, i.e. assesses the EU added value of an EU-wide loan, including cross references to salient responses from a series of interviews with stakeholders (the interviews are summarised in Appendix 1). Section 2 summarises the method and approach.