The experience and expertise gained in the Quick Start Projects provided a solid basis for the next phase of targeted project development. The Task Force Education and Youth/Enhanced Graz Process concentrated its efforts on establishing sustainable structures for regional co-operation and on supporting education policy reform and system improvement. The second call for projects focused on targeted areas in the field of Education for Democratic Citizenship, History/History Teaching and Young People.

The focus for 2002 in the fields of ”Policy Development and System Improvement“ and ”Vocational Education and Training“ was on the analysis of education policies in SEE countries and on the development of reform strategies, e.g. through the launches of the OECD Thematic Reviews and the ETF Peer Reviews on VET (link to Peer Reviews on the OECD homepage). These reviews provided the framework for the identification of priority projects in the respective areas as outlined above.
In the field of Higher Education the TF worked in close co-operation with other higher education networks and institutions and promoted sustainable regional co-operation in SEE taking the Bologna Process as framework. (link to Bologna process) A number of regional pilot projects on governance and capacity building in higher education were initiated e.g. the ”Regional University Network on Governance and Management of Higher Education“.