A Glace at International Funding Instruments
During the meeting of the European Council in Lisbon (March 2000), the Heads of State or Government launched a “Lisbon Strategy” aimed at making the European Union (EU) the most competitive economy in the world and achieving full employment by 2010. This strategy, developed at subsequent meetings of the European Council, rests on three pillars:
- An economic pillar preparing the ground for the transition to a competitive, dynamic, knowledge-based economy. Emphasis is placed on the need to adapt constantly to changes in the information society and to boost research and development.
- A social pillar designed to modernise the European social model by investing in human resources and combating social exclusion. The Member States are expected to invest in education and training, and to conduct an active policy for employment, making it easier to move to a knowledge economy.
- An environmental pillar, which was added at the Göteborg European Council meeting in June 2001, draws attention to the fact that economic growth must be decoupled from the use of natural resources.
Within the economic pillar, not only funding instruments play a key role in the transition to a competitive, dynamic, knowledge-based economy, but also consolidate the European Research Area (ERA) and stimulate the national investment needed to reach the target of 3% GDP.
In this presentation, you can read more on the main funding instruments in order to draw a general picture of the objectives and characteristics of each instrument. The following instruments will be studied: FP7, CIP, EUREKA, EUROSTARS, ERA NET PLUS, eCONTENTPLUS, SAFER INTERNET PLUS, COST and AAL.