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Mr President, we had the goal of clearing up a misunderstanding that has taken root over the past years, since we wanted to demonstrate, by doing what we did, that there is a difference between the sustainable development strategy and the Lisbon Strategy. It is wrong to claim that sustainable development is the third pillar of the Lisbon strategy since sustainable development is a horizontal concept that affects all other policies and that, therefore, applies to everything that falls under the Lisbon Strategy, such as the environment, fishing, agriculture, public finance and social security. Therefore, sustainable development is what in English is called an over-arching principle that must be observed in implementing all the policies that the European Union seeks to implement. And so the Presidency will take the initiative to have the June European Council adopt a statement on the guiding principles of sustainable development, and the statement will serve as a basis for renewing the sustainable development strategy adopted in the Gothenburg European Council in 2001.
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