The first reason why our discussion of this topic is timely is that we are coming to the end of the first cycle of the revised Lisbon strategy. The validity of the current Lisbon integrated guidelines, which were set for the period 2005 to 2008, expires. So this is an opportunity to look back, to see what has worked well and what could be improved for the future. The Commission will come up with a short paper assessing these first three years of the revised Lisbon strategy early October and then, as usual, in December, with its Lisbon progress report based on Member States reports on implementing the national reform programmes.

The latter will also include a proposal for the guidelines for the following three years. At this stage, this will be based on the need to ensure stability for the following three-year period. The Commissions assessment is that the guidelines have, overall, worked quite well and that everybodys attention should now focus on implementation aimed at long-term reform rather than on changing the policy framework [extract]

Speech by Odile Quintin, Director General for Education and Culture, European Commission