Launched in March 2010, the Europe 2020 Strategy picks up from where the Lisbon Strategy left off. Mandated by the European Council to help civil society take ownership of the project, the European Economic and Social Committee turned to the national ESCs and, therefore, to the French Economic, Social and Environmental Council (French CESE) for help with this project. Here follows an exchange of views between Joost Van Iersel, president of the EU 2020 steering committee at the European Economic and Social Committee and Yves Veyrier, president of the Section for European and International Affairs at the EESC, on the role that their institutions can play in this process.