Research crucial to Lisbon goals, says Prodi
The President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, has said that research has a crucial role to play in achieving the Lisbon summit's goal of creating a knowledge-based society. Mr Prodi's comments follow the Commission's adoption on 15 January of its spring report, 'The Lisbon strategy: making change happen.' The report was adopted in preparation for the next European summit in Barcelona, where progress towards the Lisbon goals will be assessed and future priorities set. Addressing the European Parliament on 16 January, Mr Prodi explained that: 'Education, training and research really are the key to economic renewal, to sustainable growth and new jobs. There can be no 'knowledge society' without knowledge.' He called for heavier investment in these areas, saying: 'We need an integrated strategy for Community education and research, based on networking and mobility and giving priority to the technologies of the future, such as biotechnology and clean technologies.' Mr Prodi said that the euro changeover 'shows the scale of what Europe can achieve when it can muster the political will'. Now that monetary union has been achieved, he said, it is time to turn Europe's attention to achieving the goals set at the Lisbon summit of March 2000 - making the EU the world's most competitive knowledge-based economy. 'The time has come to stick to our commitments and speed up reform,' he said. 'We have no choice - the strategy adopted at Lisbon is the key to developing our European economic and social model.' The Commission President said that while the Commission's spring report showed clear progress in a number of areas, including research, telecommunications and the environment, stalling over issues such as the Community Patent and the Galileo satellite navigation project is endangering Europe's progress and its credibility in the eyes of the world.