Brussels, 27/08/2003 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday during its first meeting after the summer break, the European Commission held a short discussion on the main challenges to be raised during coming months, namely that of bringing about a successful Intergovernmental Conference (IGC: see p.2) and giving vitality back to the European economy. As far as the economic prospects of the EU are concerned, the spokesperson for Commissioner Pedro Solbes summarised the content of the debate saying that the Commission had reaffirmed that the current strategy for following up the Lisbon Agenda would be maintained to ensure sound macro-economic policy and increase the EU's growth potential (structural reforms and new joint initiative between Italy and the Commission intended to foster investment anew in the major research and development infrastructure projects).