Adult learning has benefited from the visibility and profile of lifelong learning across a range of European policy areas. The overall profile of adult learning benefited enormously from the European Commission's decision to group all its education and training programmes together under the brand of the "Lifelong Learning Programme." The Commission's plans are worth examining in more detail. The author found that: (1) The Commission is proposing a budget increase; (2) adult learning as a field has had limited access to several of the programmes for lifelong learning; (3) non-formal education is not mentioned at all; and (4) there is little acknowledgement of the continent's changing population profile. The author argues that the Commission's redesign of its education and training programmes looks like a bundle of missed opportunities.