This time, and this is a challenge that Mr. Charbonneau also mentioned earlier, there will be a specific area for post-secondary education, and the outcome areas in question will relate specifically to access to postsecondary education, that is, indicators that can be used to monitor progress in that regard somewhat, and support for teaching personnel and research.

That is why it is important that the Commission sets the direction here.

Last June’s European Council conclusions have set the course for that institutional settlement and I hope that by the end of 2008 we will succeed.

provide an efficient interface between the Commission and key governmental authorities; contribute to the spread of best practices developed both at EU level and at national level; strengthen cooperation between the Commission and the Member States with a view to implementing better regulation at national level; contribute to the development of a coherent set of common indicators to monitor progress as regards the quality of the regulatory environment both at EU level and in the Member States themselves, as a basis for benchmarking within their national Lisbon programmes; advise the Commission on better regulation issues, in partic ...[+++]ular: simplification of EU legislation; the assessment of economic, social and environmental impacts, including administrative costs; consultation practices; and the various options of regulation possible.

Fundamentally, however, the Johannesburg Summit produced no clear and objective definition of the direction to be taken in order to achieve the realisation of the central objective of the summit, and which it took, incidentally, as its motto: sustainable development.

The conclusions of the UN Millennium Summit, which mapped out the future direction of the UN, show that there is a broad consensus over the objectives and fundamental strategies to be pursued in such pivotal areas of the work of the two organisations.