The third Joint Parliamentary Assembly on the Lisbon Strategy, in the presence of members of the European Parliament and of national Parliaments, as well as representatives of the European Council and Commission, took place in Brussels last week. The Assembly – whose primary objective consists in the identification of suitable measures to accelerate the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy through a series of “practical steps” – is divided into three workgroups: sustainable energy; internal market and innovation; human capital-education, job creation and social aspects. If consensus was registered in the first workgroup on the need for energy efficiency and renewable sources as the basis for competitiveness, the second workgroup was forced to recognize the existing difficulties at the EU level in terms of the “promotion among the public of the advantages of the single market”. The third workgroup reached agreement on the fact that “the best way of going forward consists in striking the right balance between employment, competitiveness and social cohesion”.
