European Science and Research Commissioner Janez Potocnik told the press in Brussels on Tuesday that the European Commission has "tried to do its best, both as a whole and as individual commissioners" in the past year.
Potocnik, speaking at the first anniversary of the Commission headed by Jose Manuel Barroso, added that the Commission could have been more vocal regarding the issues connected to the EU budget framework for 2007-2013.
"If it is somehow obvious that Europe needs a clearer sense of direction the Commission is the institution that should have done more to secure that direction," Potocnik said.
However, he is confident that the Commission's activities should be assessed with a broader European picture in mind, including issues regarding globalisation, terrorism, natural disasters and, especially, the EU constitutional treaty.
"There are many things that we have succeeded in doing," Potocnik added, such as reinvigorating the Lisbon process, simplifying Europe's legislation and launching accession talks with Croatia and Turkey.
Regarding his field of operations, namely science and research, Potocnik was especially pleased that knowledge has finally become one of the most important topics in the bloc.
The former Slovenian European affairs minister was also pleased that the Commission had recently adopted the Seventh Research Framework Programme (FP7).
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