This Hot Topic paper returns to a central theme for PASCAL, which is the development and implementation of lifelong learning.    Unlike earlier HTs on the theme, Jarl Bengtsson is concerned less with the concept of lifelong learning but much more with those factors at national level which need to be addressed if substantial progress is to be made in making a reality of the widespread policy commitments which are in place in most EU countries and amongst OECD member countries around the world.