欧洲和欧洲联盟在价值观、文化和态度上都很接近。然而，欧盟几乎没有试图共同加强对欧洲的情感依恋。成员国通过教育和语言强调他们在民族认同方面的差异。当欧盟使欧洲国家之间的边界变得不那么明显时，语言边界仍然存在，阻碍了不同欧盟国家公民之间的轻松交流。我们推进“学习型联盟”，作为欧盟的必要补充。学习联盟有三个组成部分:促进欧洲归属感、“交流欧盟”和“能力欧盟”。应加强归属感，教育内容应强调共同的遗产、历史和未来。在交流方面，每个欧盟公民都应该在学校学习一门欧洲通用语言(英语是可能的候选人)，除了自己的语言之外。能力是竞争的关键。能力是在由教育学决定的环境中学习而培养出来的，而不是由善意的政治家(一时兴起)决定的。 The Learning Union is at "arm's length" distance from Governments with autonomy and funding designed to incentivize learning goals as well as equality of opportunity. Universities are a special case with regard to increasing competitiveness, but also for their impact on identity. If anything has contributed to a European identity to this day, it has been the exchange of students in full or part time studies in the EU. This brought about far more than the understanding of subjects and the development of competences: it also has enriched inter-European understanding. As next steps, firstly European student mobility should be increased by more transparency on the value added in learning in Higher Education in different EU countries. Secondly, basic education could increasingly be a source of intra-European social cohesion, equality of opportunity and of economic growth if countries would follow the principles of effective schools, of school autonomy and allocate sufficient funding. This would be convergence in structure, not necessarily in content/curriculum.