Lifelong learning is gradually revealing itself as a major instrument in the European Union’s bid to achieve the strategic objective set in March 2000 by the European Council of Lisbon, which involves converting the EU, in the current decade, into the world’s most competitive, dynamic knowledge-based economy, capable of growing economically in a sustainable way with more and better employment and greater social cohesion. The European Union emphasises the fundamental importance of investment in human resources and the need for modern, efficient educational and training systems, which are in turn given further backing and complemented by the common, transversal policy factor of lifelong learning. Using the open method of coordination, both the EU and the member states, and by extension the regions too, will have to coordinate their efforts and intensify the attention given to, among other things, human resources development.
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