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Economic reform and the Lisbon Agenda – Objectives

Economic reform is key to improving the competitiveness of European economies, thereby allowing businesses to thrive and employment levels to increase. Increasing employment is the best way to make Europe’s economy more productive and sustainable, and more importantly, by unlocking human potential and creating jobs, economic reform can combat poverty and social exclusion.

Economic reform is underpinned by a number of important specific issues, including the liberalisation of markets; promoting the needs of small firms; reducing regulatory burdens; encouraging entrepreneurship; encouraging innovation; and improving access to venture capital.

HM Treasury produce an annual White Paper on EU Economic Reform, which provides an analysis of the benefits of reform for Europe and for the UK in Europe. The latest White Paper " Growth and Opportunity: Prioritising Economic Reform in Europe" was published in February 2005.

The Lisbon Agenda

In March 2000, at the Spring European Council held in Lisbon, European Heads of Government and State committed themselves to a ten-year strategy of reform for Europe’s labour, capital and product markets. We committed ourselves to becoming “the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social inclusion” by 2010.

This set of actions and targets has come to be known as the Lisbon Agenda, cutting across a spectrum of issues, including entrepreneurship, social enterprise, employment, sustainable development, innovation, and corporate governance.

The Mid Term Review

At the Spring European Council in March 2005, EU Heads of Government re-launched the Lisbon strategy with a new focus on jobs and growth and a streamlined governance regime. This ‘Mid-Term Review’ was aimed at addressing what is widely seen as the failure of the Lisbon Strategy to achieve its goal of making Europe ‘the most competitive and dynamic knowledge based economy in the world’ by 2010.

New Focus on Growth and Jobs

The Lisbon reforms were proposed in the Commission’s Communication of 2 February “Growth and Jobs:A New Start for the Lisbon Strategy" 

The UK Government endorses the report's analysis and agrees strongly that the focus of action must now be on generating more jobs and growth. Our employment priority must be to increase skills and productivity and expand participation in the labour market. As the report makes clear, we need more jobs and growth to sustain the European social model.

Since 2000,the EU has made significant progress in economic reform, but we will need to accelerate the pace of reform to meet the 2010 objectives. 2005 marked the half-way point in the Lisbon strategy and provided an opportunity to reinvigorate and focus the Lisbon Agenda on the key reforms needed to:

• Promote employment and skills
• Strengthen competition and regulatory reform
• Advance enterprise and innovation
• Achieve greater external trade liberalisation
• Meet the challenge of sustainable development

But the new focus and governance reforms are not about creating new policy initiatives – they are about streamlining existing systems and focusing a few, key priority reforms.

Contact

Ohita Bare
Tel: 020 7215 6454
Fax: 020 7215 2234
Email: ohita.bare@dti.gsi.gov.uk