EU Council Monitor - 16/01/09

European Year of Creativity and Innovation launched
"As the economic crisis continues to get worse, creativity and innovation are key to strengthening Europe's competitiveness and must remain on the EU agenda beyond the current European Year, leading EU politicians stressed at the its launch event in Prague this week.

Investing in the future
Special ambassadors to the European Year, who attended the launch, welcomed the commissioner's call to make additional funding available to improve the bloc's competitiveness, suggesting that it should be spent on issues such as human capital creation, productivity growth and environmental protection." [Europa]

Artistic launch of the European Year 2009 in Brussels by AEC and ELIA
"The European Association of Conservatoires (AEC) and European League of Institutes of the Arts (ELIA) organise their artistic launch of the European Year for Creativity & Innovation 2009 on Tuesday 20 January in Brussels. ELIA and AEC are the largest representative European organisations for higher arts education." [Europa]