The EU Lisbon agenda

Résumé du document

To make the European Union "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-driven economy, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion ": that was the guideline, the "new strategic goal" of the principles EU's Head of States and Governments agreed on when they signed in March 2000 what is now called the Lisbon Agenda. This agreement was discussed by the fifteen countries that formed the EU at that time, during the European Council that took place in Lisbon. The idea was to launch a long-term plan, including overall strategies concerning economic policies for the next ten years. However, this Lisbon Strategy aimed at including social considerations in these economic policies. Thus, they have defined the European social model as a triangle, linking the three angles represented by economic, employment and social policies. The gathering of these three perspectives should ensure a balanced growth, in everybody's advantage, and well-being in the European Union. Even more, the EU would have a role to play in the mutual progress on economic and social fronts.

Extraits

[...] Trusting free market, European leaders agreed to reduce regulation and to encourage liberalization, through structural reforms. In parallel, there would be a real European internal market's regulation, and financial markets would be reformed as well, for more efficiency and transparency. An important point was the will to introduce more competition in telecom, energy and transports sectors. Finally, financial consolidation and complete overhaul of public financial system in all countries seemed necessary to sustain these pushy economic goals. However, this new European model should respect the three angles of economy, that is what we have just seen, but also of employment and social policies. [...]

[...] On the other hand, the ETUC[5] criticized the “neo-liberal policy approaches” of the reforms: as usual, the consensus is hard to find, but nowadays, all the European partners seem engaged on the way of the PJG. To conclude this study of the EU Lisbon Agenda, it can be said in a nutshell that the strategy elaborated in 2000 was ambitious. The context was appropriate: politically speaking, European leaders wanted to build a social model taking reconciling welfare state to liberalism. [...]

[...] However, the pace of reform needs to be significantly stepped up." That is why the newly appointed Commission decided to tackle the issue without waiting until 2005 and the end of the first phase of the Agenda to prepare the second period of the decade. The midway meeting: the 22-23 March 2005 European Council Main points were brought up: growth, innovation and employment. But the EU leaders insisted on social cohesion and mobilization of resources, both national and communitarian. The idea of instituting national action programs, taken from the Kok report, was adopted, and they proposed a new Open Coordination Method. [...]

[...] This “third and its successes have strongly influenced the Lisbon Agenda's spirit and the new European social model. Socially speaking, it is inspired, as we said, by Scandinavian model; but as far as economy is concerned, it follows liberal principles, like the United-States for instance. This model is based on education and employment: people are central, that is to say, in economic terms, human capital. However, European leaders needed a favorable context to launch this new economic strategy at the height of the dot.com boom: an encouraging context for Europe to take off again At that time, the economic prospective was very optimistic: the growth was good, and indicators were very positive. [...]

[...] Critics have been frequent from the first years of the plan. Some of them affirm that the gap between the EU and its competitors, the US and Japan, is yawning. We can see with this graph by Euronext the fall of the Eurozone GDP growth since 2000. The initial aim of a growth on average seems to vanish Likewise, employment rates are staying quite low in some countries, such as France or Germany, in comparison with the Lisbon aims. Of course, the Eurozone has suffered the downturn that has affected the world economy after the dot.com crash. [...]