COR/06/87
Brussels, 19 June 2006
Lisbon Strategy and education: CoR hosts structured dialogue with Commissioner Figel (20 June)
The Lisbon Strategy sets out a number of objectives for the European Union to adapt to globalisation and to shift to knowledge-based economies. Education and cultural issues are crucial in providing a number of new basic skills to citizens in order to be better equipped to face the new challenges in a changing working life. Regional and local authorities are important players in providing education in connection to the cultural environment.
Following a request by European Commission President José Manuel Barroso in November 2005 for the Committee of the Regions (CoR) to hold structural dialogue sessions with Commissioners, the CoR will host talks between Commissioner Jan FIGEL, responsible for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism, and associations of local and regional authorities on the theme of “The European Policy of Education and Culture: its contribution to the success of the Lisbon Strategy – the role of regions and cities”.
The dialogue will take place on 20 June at the CoR headquarters building in Brussels (Room BEL 52, 2:30-4:30 pm).
The meeting will be chaired by the 1st Vice President of the Committee of the Regions, Luc VAN DEN BRANDE. “The cultural diversity of Europe is its greatest advantage. We have to manage the cultural diversity in the European Union as a competitive advantage in the 21st century in a globalising world. The diversity and variety of cultures, as well as education and training, will help the EU to better meet the competitive challenge from Japan, the United States and China,” said Luc Van den Brande ahead of the meeting. “If we want to become more competitive we have to invest much more in education, training, attitude-building, community building, and social capital. It isn’t enough to have sufficient institutional capacity and financial means. We need to invest in ‘culture’ to make it possible to get a leverage effect for sustainable economic development and so achieve the Lisbon-goals,” added Mr Van den Brande.
For more information, please contact: Martin MALLON Tel. +32 (0)2 282 20 33 Email: martin.mallon@cor.europa.eu Dennis ABBOTT Tel. +32 (0)2 282 20 99 Email: dennis.abbott@cor.europa.eu Estelle POIDEVIN Tel. +32 (0)2 282 22 70 Email: estelle.poidevin@cor.europa.eu
