Brussels, 08/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - In letter addressed to the participants of the European Council of Barcelona (that we shall publish in full), European Commission President Romano Prodi states, in particular, that discussions in Barcelona should "not cover the whole of the Lisbon strategy". Recalling that the programme "is designed for a whole decade", and that "not all subjects can receive the same attention every year", he considers that they should "focus on active employment policies, reforming the networks and key infrastructures and investing in knowledge and information". In particular, he insists on "increased coherence and predictability of the national budgetary policies, especially in the euro zone, and repeats that "common rules and standards for the conduct of the budgetary policy could enhance the coherence and transparency of our economic strategy". According to him, they should also "examine the possibility of strengthening our co-operation at an early stage of policy changes by discussions among peers".
Mr. Prodi, who notes that "attention will now increasingly turn toward you, your governments and the European Parliament, for you to take the necessary political decisions and that you apply them without delay", states that the Commission expects an impetus from Barcelona in the following fields:
- development of active employment markets policies (improving training, mobility of the labour force);
- pursuit of the major economic reforms and "integration in basic industries". Mr. Prodi says: "We should in particular try to break the deadlock that prevents the opening up of the energy markets and agree to use the trans-European networks to complete the missing links both in the energy and transport sectors". And he also mentions the setting up of "secure broadband networks" (see other article).
- creation of "closer links between education, research and innovation under the auspices of a European area of knowledge".
Mr. Prodi also stresses that in Barcelona the candidate countries will participate for the first time in the work of a Spring Summit and that the Lisbon Strategy should not be considered as an additional obstacle for them, but, on the contrary, help them prepare for membership, by setting out priorities for the actions in economic and environmental fields.