Student Exchange Programs as a Part of European Integration and Lisbon Strategy

Nowadays people are living in globalization era when all countries are more linked then before. It increases integration of economy, politics, cross cultural communication, etc. But globalization is not only creating new opportunities but also threats – political conflicts, culture misunderstandings, gaps between countries economy, etc. To avoid these threats people must cooperate and think about integration, cross cultural communication. Europe Union (EU) has established a lot of documents which help to implement cooperation among its Member States especially in field of economics – economic growth, reduction of unemployment, creation of new jobs, etc.
One of the EU development and action plans is Lisbon Strategy which aim is to make the EU “the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion”. To achieve the goal of Lisbon Strategy the Member States should fulfill 3 main Lisbon criteria – improvement of the business environment so that it would be more interesting for investment and work, knowledge and innovation for economic growth and creation of new and better jobs.
To achieve the Lisbon criteria first of all the Member States must invest in human resources because the basic element of competitive economy is well-informed people. People are at the centre of the Union’s policies. This means that Member States are expected to invest in people, in increasing their knowledge and skills, etc. The vital parameters for the knowledge based society are education and training.

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