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Common Declaration

At the conference in Aix-en-Provence, August 29th 2014, we have agreed on the following Common Declaration.


Common Declaration 

The economic, social, political and environmental crisis we have been experiencing for several years has highlighted the need to adapt the education of school pupils. We believe that the dissemination of economics education is essential to help the young to engage with the issues at stake. Yet, in most of our countries, Economics Education is open to a minority of pupils. Furthermore, some organizations promote a narrow conception of Economics Education, reduced to the acquisition of personal financial competencies and narrow work-related skills, which convey an individualistic vision of human nature and make schools subject to undue pressure from commercial and other lobby groups.

Given such a background, the members of the Association of European Economics Education gathered in their 20th international conference urge their respective national governments to:

  • Reinforce the place of Economics teaching in national curricula in order to empower every pupil to understand and engage with the economic forces shaping our modern world;

  • Promote a broad conception of economic understanding that goes beyond a narrow focus on financial literacy and work-related skills and enables pupils to engage as citizens with the huge economic challenges we face as nations and internationally;

We also urge governments to ensure that educational curricula reflect our diverse traditions and cultures, and resist their replacement by a single one-size-fits-all mandatory model, designed far from pupils. At the same time we support the promotion of international exchanges, dialogues and transfers among teachers and pupils. Such links promote healthy interchange and progressive, evolutionary improvement in our practices.


Prof. Hans Jürgen Schlösser, Chairman AEEE

Orla Duedahl, President AEEE