Today’s challenges!

Paris: 3 July 2008

The French Presidency of the Council of the European Union has published the work program for the period 1 July – 31 December 2008. The work programme (35 pages) titled - EUROPE TAKING ACTION TO MEET TODAY’S CHALLENGES.

The Introduction to the work programme states:

“These plans represent a continuation of the work carried out under the Slovene Presidency and within the wider context of the programme agreed with the forthcoming Czech and Swedish Presidencies. These plans also take account of the work programme of the European Commission for 2008. They have been the subject of close consultation with the European Parliament.”

With respect to the knowledge based society the French Presidency intends to:

“A Europe of knowledge and mobility

Education, training and innovation constitute the pillars of the knowledge-based society upon which Europe needs to base its investment and develop its value-added. They make a major contribution to the efforts being made to improve growth, employment, competitiveness and social cohesion in Europe and hence form an integral part of the Lisbon strategy. Equally, they play a fundamental role in fostering the inclusion of young people and helping workers to adapt to increasingly complex societies and economies.

These objectives are addressed in the Community context by way of strengthening the role of education and training within the Lisbon strategy, implementing strategies in the Member States for life-long education and training, promoting innovation and creativity to contribute to the development of the triangle of knowledge (education, innovation, research), and by reinforcing European systems of education and vocational training, higher education and research which are essential to maintain the attractiveness of European education systems in the world.

The creation of a knowledge and mobility area also involves strengthening ties between European citizens, by way of apprenticeships, and learning and using multiple languages. The French Presidency will therefore give special attention to linguistic diversity.”

With respect to European competiveness the French Presidency intends to:

“A Europe of competitiveness

The French Presidency will work to promote European competitiveness both internally and externally.

It will seek an agreement on the measures to be taken to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – the “Small Business Act” for Europe – proposed by the Commission. The Presidency particularly aims to work on access to funding, especially for innovative SMEs, on integrating the internal market to the advantage of SMEs by adopting the idea of the European Private Company and on improving the protection of industrial property rights and promoting entrepreneurship. It will continue the efforts to facilitate access for SMEs to public markets and to simplify the administrative and legal situation for SMEs.”