LISBON STRATEGY POLISHED UP AT SPRING SUMMIT.

• Position: Brief Article

Although the hostilities in Iraq naturally occupied top billing at the Spring Summit, EU leaders also managed to turn their attention to the subject of the Lisbon strategy. As is well known, this is the EU's plan to make the European economy the most competitive in the world by 2010. The targets that were set to achieve this are now in need of adjustment, and progress has to be measured. In some areas Member States are on course to meet the targets, but in others there seems little chance of meeting them unless they are adjusted and/or efforts to meet them are quadrupled. This is particularly so in the field of social affairs and education, which affect so many other sectors.

In information technology, it is useless calling for more research to be done without taking into account the need to educate and train...