LISBON -- European Commission President Jose Manuel Durao Barroso last week said that the 10-year-old Lisbon Agenda plan to boost the competitiveness of European countries through increased IT innovation has so far failed to meet its goals.

Barroso said Europe still lags behind the U.S. in technical innovation, despite the detailed plan the EC laid out a decade ago and then relaunched last year.

"The original Lisbon strategy had no lack of analysis, no shortage of targets," Barroso said during the Government Leaders Forum held here by Microsoft Corp. "But let's be frank -- it did not work."

In addition to the ongoing gap between Europe and the U.S., emerging technology companies in Asia are changing the nature of competition, Barroso said. "European innovation is just not dynamic enough," he said, adding that members of the European Union need to better target investments while developing a more skilled workforce.

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