Brussels, 15/03/2005 (Agence Europe) - The president of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso and Commissioners Jan Figel (Education) and Janez Potocnik (research) met ten Nobel Peace Prize winners on Tuesday morning: Georges Charpak (physics, from France, 1992), Dutch nationals Paul Crutzen (chemistry, 1995) and Gerardus t'Hooft (physics, 1999), Christian de Duve (medicine, from Belgium, 1974), from Germany Manfred Eigen (chemistry, 1967), Erwin Neher (medicine, 1991) and Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard (medicine, 1995), Richard R. Ernst (chemistry, Switzerland, 1991), from Italy Carlo Rubbia (physics, 1984) and Torsten Wiesel (medicine, Sweden, 1981). Commissioners and experts discussed the Lisbon objectives and methods that could help promote a real knowledge society.
“Commissioners and president Barroso spent the whole day with us (…).president Barroso spent it listening, he hardly opened his mouth”, explained Christian de Duve at the end of this meeting, which all the scientists considered as having honoured science.