The CDESR:

• took note of developments in the Bologna Process, in particular the establishment of the European Register of Quality Assurance Agencies;
• welcomed the contributions of the Council of Europe to the European Higher Education Area, through intergovernmental, bi-lateral and regional activities including the recognition of qualifications, the public responsibility for higher education and research as well as through participation in the steering bodies of the Bologna Process;
• underlined the important role of the Council of Europe in contributing to the development of the strategy for the Bologna Process beyond 2010, as well as the importance of engaging stakeholders at national and institutional level in the debate on the further development of the European Higher Education Area;
• underlined the importance of continuing the reflections on the public responsibility for higher education and linking these to the implementation of quality assurance.

The CDESR:

• appreciated the role of the Council of Europe in supporting the sharing of experiences in the development of national qualifications frameworks compatible with the overarching framework of the European Higher Education Area, in line with the London Communiqué (17-18 May 2007);
• took note of the activities of the Council of Europe in this area, which included the Forum on Qualifications Frameworks (Strasbourg, 11-12 October 2007), as well as two meetings of the Bologna Co-ordination Group on Qualifications Frameworks (Strasbourg, 26 November 2007 and Edinburgh, 22 February 2008); 
• underlined the need to link the implementation of the European Standards for Quality Assurance to the implementation of qualifications frameworks.

The CDESR took note of the reports on Council of Europe activities in the recognition field, in particular through the Council of Europe/UNESCO Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education in the European Region (ETS No. 165), the outcomes of the meetings of the ENIC Bureau, the NARIC Advisory Board, the Working Group on national action plans for recognition and the Working Party on Substantial Differences.