The education and training policies of the European Union have gained more importance since the Lisbon Strategy (2000) and the “Education and Training 2020” programme (2009) which was in corporated into the“Europe 2020” strategy. While each member State retains political sovereignty, the strategy has considerable impact on the management of education and training systems at national level. Here we present one of the benchmarks selected by the European Union, associated with major socio-economic issues, that of early school leavers. These are young people who have left the educational system with no qualifications and without going on to follow a training course after leaving. Although there are many difficulties involved in measuring their numbers for the purposes of international comparison, it would seem that one young European in eight leaves the education system early. The situation in France is slightly better than the European average, and early school leaving occurs more often in southern Europe. In the Netherlands in particular, where a proactive policy has been followed, early school leaving has seen a rapid decline (from 16% at the beginning of the 2000s to under 9% in 2012).