The Industrial Advisory Group held its first large meeting in Porto, on 23 and 24 de July 2006. It was chaired by Heinrich Flegel, president of Daimler-Chrysler, and concluded by José Manuel Durão Barroso, President of the European Commission. This large meeting gathered the senior regulators for the European industrial sector and it left a clear statement that “an economy based on services only will not survive on the long-term”. The Agenda for this meeting was “the transformation of the European manufacturing industry in a knowledge-based economy”, as well as world leadership in the manufacturing industry and the development of a research and innovation strategy.