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The European Education Area aims to support Member States' efforts in enhancing the educational attainment of younger generations. In this policy context, there is a need for an objective tool to assess the educational outcomes of EU countries. The present report addresses this need by pursuing two objectives: (1) providing a comprehensive method for using EU-SILC data to build relevant indicators for monitoring educational systems; (2) investigating the factors that explain variations in educational indicators across EU countries, with a particular focus on the influence of family inputs and personal characteristics. The empirical analysis is conducted using EU-SILC data from the 27 EU countries, employing various methodologies, including cluster analysis, principal component analysis, and correlational analysis. The results of this report demonstrate the potential of EU-SILC data in assessing educational systems in Europe. Furthermore, the findings offer valuable insights in support of the European Commission's objective of establishing a European Educational Area. The results also raise concerns, suggesting that education in Europe may not act as a universal equaliser. Instead, educational systems continue to exhibit social selectivity in influencing individuals' prospects for future careers.