Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I welcome our guests and compliment them on their submissions, which were soundly based as always. I have a number of questions to pose.

The Lisbon strategy was deemed to have missed its targets, but that was not disclosed or discovered, unfortunately, until almost the end of its period of operation. To what extent has the 2020 strategy been achieved in terms of interim targets thus far? In what areas are the most obvious defaults in that regard? To what extent have the European institutions, including the Commission and the Council, co-operated with member state Governments to address the issues that may have caused a slow-down or failure to meet targets? I have previously suggested an annual review. To what extent could it be done as an internal component of a mid-term review to alert the institutions to failures or delays in achieving specific targets on an annual basis? Instead of waiting until 2020 or 2019, why not have an annual review which becomes part of the final report? That should identify deficiencies at an earlier stage in order to remedy them.

To what extent have the witnesses in their capacity as members of the Committee of the Regions and Eurofound identified the deficiencies in infrastructure which might be contributing to delay or failure in the achievement of the targets? There are several deficiencies, including in relation to energy, telecommunications infrastructure and broadband. What have we achieved to provide adequate infrastructure in those areas to enable a relaunch of the European economies, individually and collectively within and outside the EU? Various commentators say from day to day what the ills of Europe are and I suggest strongly that infrastructural deficiency is a major one.

That is particularly relevant for member states on the periphery of Europe, because the geographical position suggests that in the natural order of things, the centre will obviously be the centre of power and authority. That is the way things work. All roads lead to Rome was once a particular phrase. People might now suggest that all roads lead to Brussels, or somewhere similar. The question that arises is to what extent there is co-operation between European governments and the Committee of the Regions on identifying and remedying those deficiencies. What is happening to co-ordinate efforts to remedy them? For instance, a debate is taking place on the issue of energy, something my colleague brought up at the previous meeting, and whether we should go nuclear or whether we should go for natural energy. We should choose natural, renewable energy. I am uneasy about nuclear energy and that is the feeling across Europe, or certainly in some major countries in Europe.