The Council examined draft conclusions prepared by the Presidency for the European Council meeting to be held in Brussels on 23 and 24 March.
The European Council will focus on its annual review of the strategy for growth and jobs that it laid down at Lisbon in March 2000 and re-launched last spring, as well as on an energy policy for Europe. It will also review the international situation. As regards the Lisbon strategy, the European Council is expected to highlight the need to implement commitments made last year and to identify priority actions to be implemented before the end of 2007, thus enabling a second phase of the strategy to be launched in the spring of 2008.