Brussels, 25/10/2005 (Agence Europe) - Further to the mandate of the European Council on 22 and 23 March 2005, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and the national economic and social councils decided to present a summary report to the European Council of March 2006 on implementation of the Lisbon strategy at national level, coordination of which will be assured by the EESC. In this context, the EESC sub-committee on the Lisbon Strategy is organising, for Tuesday 8 and Wednesday 9 November in Brussels, a public hearing on the civil society on “implementation of the Lisbon Strategy”. Participants will include members of the national economic and social committees, the EESC and the Committee of the Regions, as well as experts in this field.
Work will be opened by Roger Briesch, Chairman of the Lisbon Strategy sub-committee of the EESC responsible for the summary report drafted with the national economic and social committees. Ms Maria Joao Rodrigues, Special Adviser to the European Commission on Lisbon Strategy, will present her paper entitled: “Debate on Europe and the Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Employment”. There will be four sittings on: 1) good practice in implementation of the Lisbon Strategy; 2) activities by civil society organisations; 3) the road towards the European knowledge society; and 4) the Lisbon strategy in new Member States. Conclusions will be drawn by Dimitrios Dimitriadis, the chairman of the sub-committee on the EESC's opinion on the road to a European knowledge society and the contribution of organised civil society to the Lisbon Strategy. (Information: gilbert.marchlewitz@esc.eu.int).