This article argues that, despite globalisation forces, national education and training systems have kept their particularities. Policies of convergence, enhanced by supranational organisations such as the European Commission, have not yet led to a homogenisation of national education and training systems. The latter are still influenced by the political, economic and social framework. Thus, no single model of lifelong learning prevailed in Europe. There were countries close to the demand-led model of "voluntary partnership" (e.g. UK), countries representative of the "formalised social partnership" model (e.g. Sweden) and countries adhering to the "statist" model (e.g. Greece).