Romano Prodi, President of the EC, José María Aznar, Spanish Prime Minister and President in office of the Council, and Javier Solana, Secretary-General of the Council of the EU and High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy (from left to right)

The Heads of State and Government of the European Union met in Barcelona on 15 and 16 March 2002 for an annual spring meeting, the second of its type, devoted to the Union's economic, social and environmental situation. The Heads of State or Government, Ministers for Foreign Affairs and Finance Ministers also met their counterparts from the 13 candidate countries to discuss the Lisbon Strategy and its implementation which should encourage the candidate countries to adopt and implement the key fixed objectives in economic, social and enviromental areas, and that it should be considered as a process where one party learns from the other.Audiovisual Service of the European Commissio