Brussels, 10 January 2002
Following the release of the 2001 European competitiveness report and in preparation for the European Council scheduled for March, the European Commission has organised a debate to analyse how close Europe is coming to achieving the goal set at the European Council in Lisbon in 2000 - to make the European Union the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world.
The debate will take place at the Charlemagne building of the European Commission in Brussels on 30 January. Results from the 2001 European competitiveness report highlight a slowdown in European productivity growth and this could be seen as a sign of poor innovation. Identifying the role of knowledge-based variables, looking at the reasons for the productivity gap, analysing why some Member States are surging ahead of even US standards and what role information communication technologies play in competitiveness.
Both the European Commissioner for Enterprise and Information society, Erkki Liikanen, and the Director-General of Enterprise DG, Fabio Colasanti, will be speaking at the event. Representatives of business, academia and the European Parliament will also be speaking.
To attend the conference, please send a request to the following contacts:
Email: entr-conference-info@cec.eu.int Fax: +32-2-2991926
Remarks: Registration requests must be received by 18 January