In Focus

Hofheinz appointed advisor to Polish EU Presidency

Paul Hofheinz, president of the Lisbon Council, will serve as an advisor to the Polish EU Presidency in the second half of 2011. He was chosen to be part of this prestigious group based on his expertise on human capital and innovation. The advisory group was recently featured in the Polish Newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza.
Read article in Polish
Read article in English

Tomorrow's Internet

How will society change as the internet becomes more widespread? What will Web 3.0 look like? And how will today’s under 30’s use the Internet to write their own version of democracy and society? These questions and more were addressed by top thought leaders and policy makers, such as Don Tapscott, author of bestselling books Grown Up Digital and Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, and Viviane Reding, European commissioner for information society and media.
Read Commissioner Reding's remarks
Watch video introduction to Grown Up Digital

European Growth and Jobs Monitor 2009

European countries are all suffering from the global economic downturn, but some – such as Finland – are better placed to withstand the crunch, according to The 2009 European Growth and Jobs Monitor: Indicators of Success in the Knowledge Economy, an annual competitiveness survey published by the Lisbon Council and Allianz SE. The study, now in its third edition, looks at the EU’s 14 largest economies and measures how they perform in reaching goals derived from the Lisbon Agenda.
Download The 2009 European Growth and Jobs Monitor
Download press release

University Systems Ranking

European university systems must do more to meet the social and economic demands of a modern, knowledge-based economy. That is among the key findings of University Systems Ranking: Citizens and Society in the Age of Knowledge.  The report – which represents the culmination of a year-long research project – finds that Australia, United Kingdom and Denmark have the best tertiary education systems among the 17 OECD countries surveyed.
Download the policy brief

Innovation: Open, Collaborative, Interdisciplinary

The Lisbon Council convened a High-Level Working Group on Innovation. Convening under the timely theme Open, Collaborative, Interdisciplinary: What the Next Wave of Innovation will Mean for Europe, the gathering brought together key thought leaders and global practitioners. Hal Varian, author of Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy and chief economist of Google, delivered The 2009 Guglielmo Marconi Lecture, the Lisbon Council’s flagship event on innovation and creativity. His address, entitled Combinatorial Innovation: How Mass Collaboration will Change Europe, shed light on the profound economic transition triggered by the application of new technologies and new innovation models. Peter Dröll, head of unit, innovation policy development at DG Enterprise, served as discussant and presented the European Commission view. In another session, Dirk Pilat and Andrew Wyckoff of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development introduced their leading-edge work on the OECD’s new Innovation Strategy.

Watch The 2009 Guglielmo Marconi Lecture in full on EUX.tv
Download OECD presentation on innovation
Download Professor Varian's presentation
Read Ann Mettler's article on innovation in Parliament Magazine


Recent News

The Future of the Lisbon Agenda

The Lisbon Council is actively contributing to the reflection on the future of the Lisbon Agnda, taking part in the last three Lisbon Coordinators meetings in Prague, Paris and Brussels. In addition, Executive Director Ann Mettler published a policy brief entitled From Why to How: Reflections on the Lisbon Agenda post-2010 and an editorial in The Wall Street Journal Europe entitled “Obama’s Lisbon Agenda.” The Lisbon Council will continue its activities on the future of the Lisbon Agenda throughout 2009.
Download “From Why to How”
Download "Obama's Lisbon Agenda"
Read blogpost "In defence of the Lisbon Agenda"


Felipe González on the Future of Europe

In a passionate and compelling address, Felipe González, chairman of the Reflection Group on the Future of Europe and former prime minister of Spain, discussed the challenges we face – and the solutions at our disposal. He called on EU states to do more to fight the economic downturn. Delivering The 2009 Robert Schuman Lecture, he explained how the reflection group he is leading plans to contribute to a healthy and multi-faceted debate on the future of Europe.

Navarra Declaration on Talent

Participants of the Ágora Talentia – World Forum on Talent – convening in Pamplona, Spain, launched The Navarra Declaration on Talent in the Knowledge Age. Coordinated in partnership with the Lisbon Council, this Declaration calls for a seismic shift in how we create, identify, manage and develop talent throughout people’s lives and throughout the world. It is a comprehensive and inspiring roadmap for – and vision of – a society that places talent and human creativity at the forefront of human development.
Read The Navarra Declaration on Talent
Leer la Declaratíon Navarra sobre el Talento
Sign the Declaration on Ágora Talentia Website


Skills and Human Capital Summit

Organised in collaboration with Siemens, The 2008 Skills and Human Capital Summit convened under the theme Raising Our Game, Staying Ahead. The event was kicked off by Ján Figel’, European commissioner for education, training and culture, and included sessions led by the OECD and CEDEFOP, the European Centre for the Development of Educational Training. It also included a presentation on youth and science, led by Dr. Frank-Stefan Becker, an education expert at Siemens.
Download presentation on youth and science (Siemens)
Download presentation on adult skills (OECD)
Download presentation on skills forecast


Innovation Day

Convening under the theme Attracting and Retaining Talent, Janez Potočnik, European commissioner for science and research, led a fascinating discussion on Europe’s fifth. Kacim Kellal, assistant deputy minister of international affairs and co-development of France, and Jonathan Faull, director general of DG Justice, Freedom and Security at the European Commission, joined a working group on the talent challenge and the EU Blue Card. The 2008 Innovation Day was organised in collaboration with Oracle.
Download OECD presentation on the mobility of highly skilled

Commissioner Figel' on Skills for the 21st Century

The 2008 Skills and Human Capital Summit was kicked off by Ján Figel’, European Commissioner for education, training and culture, who delivered The 2008 Jean Jacques Rousseau Lecture, the Lisbon Council’s flagship event on the future of the European social model. He delivered a passionate plea for greater investment in – and utilisation of – skills and human capital.
Download Commissioner Figel’s remarks