I think it's very easy to see that culture is an essential ingredient of European identity.

It's thanks to European culture that our continent has this specific individuality which makes a contrast with cultures and identities of other parts of world. Of course I don't mean the situations in which European culture has been exported outside Europe, such as the USA, South America, and so on. There are several factors which together with the European moral and cultural values, explain that you have a very strong and specific identity, in a quite complex diversity, but having its roots both mainly in Greco-Roman antiquity and in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Of course there are other ingredients, even the Muslim tradition in the periphery of Europe and in the South. But this is the core of European culture. So it's very important, not only because it achieves our identity but also because in an era of globalisation it's an asset allows us to affirm it - to be something different, apart from massification. If you want to escape massification one of the means at your disposal is to strengthen the role played by culture and cultural identity. For me this is very clear.

The problem of globalisation affecting culture lies in the problem of banalisation, of massification, of lowering everything to lowest level. The way culture opposes globalisation is not only in enabling someone to keep his or her identity, it also means it attributes value to the role such an identity can play in other areas. It's very important now that we insist in keeping the values connected to this identity and play a role on a world scale. It's very important that we keep these specific features of ours, so that we avail ourselves of globalisation without being crushed by it.

Yes of course. There is no Lisbon Strategy deserving that name if you forget the cultural side of life.

You cannot achieve progress based on knowledge, if you do not think that in the concept of knowledge there is an essential dimension represented by culture. It's impossible. Besides, you cannot separate humanistic values from scientific knowledge. Otherwise we are helping to repair machines but not human beings. This is why we cannot forget this both in educational policies and in the Lisbon Strategy. It's an absolutely essential dimension and I'm glad the Commission has understood it properly. Although, always speaking of culture in terms of a tool against joblessness and as a factor for development, and forgetting that culture is also a value in itself, should be avoided.