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European economic reform white paper 2002

At the Lisbon European Council in 2000, Europe's leaders committed themselves to an ambitious ten-year strategy for economic reform. The vision agreed at Lisbon is of a dynamic job-creating Europe, of a Europe that delivers on both economic and social objectives to become the leading knowledge based economy in the world.

The reforms agreed at Lisbon have given much needed new impetus to the efforts of the last 40 years to complete the Single Market. The EU has moved towards its targets. But there is much to be done, and the gap with the leading knowledge-based economy in the world - the US - remains in many respects vast.

The European Economic Reform White Paper restates the Government's commitment to the Lisbon goal. It sets out its contribution to the economic reform debate at the Barcelona European Council of March 2002 and beyond, highlighting and prioritising the changes needed in Europe's product, capital and labour markets if higher productivity and greater employment are to be achieved. It shows how economic reform can - and must - deliver social justice and a clean environment, as well as improved economic performance. And it emphasises throughout, the need for reform to be pursued by an open and outward-looking Europe that is both aware of its international obligations, and ready and willing to fulfill them.

The European Economic Reform White Paper and associated documents are available below in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF). If you do not have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer you can download the software free of charge from the Adobe website.

For alternative ways to read PDF documents and further information on website accessibility visit the HM Treasury accessibility page.

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Associated Documents

Documents relating to the White Paper can be accessed by visiting internal links, PDF documents or external websites.

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European Economic Reform index
International Issues index