Sir, Regarding ‘‘Wise men’ chief admits EU failure on growth agenda’: Felipe González, a former Spanish prime minister and chairman of a reflection group on the future of Europe, stated that the Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs had failed. That is right as regards the initial objective. But we must learn from history. In [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘MEPs back new rules on nanomaterials in cosmetics‘: The era of nanomaterials has arrived. Let’s not make the same mistake as we did with industrial chemicals, where we passed them off as safe on the back of animal tests, only to discover that many are very dangerous to human health. Today we can [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Unreformed European school system ‘might collapse’‘: Thank you for reporting about the European schools and the public hearing about the system in the European Parliament. I draw your attention to a comment made by one of the parents during the hearing: when talking about the European schools and the issues connected to them, [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Romania seeks IMF loan as Eastern crisis worsens‘: wiiw recently published its forecasts for Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, Kazakhstan and China, in a report entitled ‘Differentiated Impact of the Global Crisis’. It analyses recent economic developments and short- and medium-term development prospects, covering the countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Strauss: Europe ‘wasting billions’ by duplicating research‘: The EU only funds only a small proportion of research in Europe. It would be bad for fundamental research in Europe if it were possible to carry out a single type of research in a single laboratory, instead of using several independent groups, because the most [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘EU climate negotiator signals end of ‘free lunches’‘: In the run-up to the Copenhagen COP and further to your interview with the European Commission’s Runge-Metzger, PWR would like to raise the question: ‘Is what is being negotiated by all parties in fact simply ‘business as usual’?’ (BAU). To be effective, non-BAU scenarios normally [...]

Sir, Your LinksDossier on the PSD (‘Payment Services Directive: The end of cash era‘) states: “The Payment Services Directive does not cover Internet payments. Online purchases are regulated by the eMoney Directive adopted in 2000. The Commission is currently waiting for the PSD to enter into force before coming out with new proposals to amend [...]