Quoi de neuf pour la Stratégie de Lisbonne?

Créer maintenant le prochain cadre pour les réformes structurelles en Europe est une priorité – et un défi que les dirigeants européens se doivent de relever – ont écrit dans un article paru en mai Hans Martens, directeur exécutif, et Fabian Zuleeg, analyste politique en chef à l’European Policy Centre.

The Lisbon Agenda, launched in 2000, was supposed to make the EU « the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion » by 2010, the authors recall.

But « time is running out » for this to happen, the authors warn, stating that « the risk now is that the Union will reach the end of 2010 without a visionary and credible framework for modernising its economies further ».

« Some preparatory work has been done for a future Lisbon Agenda, but no-one is providing decisive leadership, » Martens and Zuleeg declare.

At the end of the 1990s, the driving ambition behind the development of the Lisbon Agenda was for Europe to « directly compete with America » and « come out on top within the space of a decade ». In 2005, « a simplified Lisbon Agenda was relaunched, focusing on stronger, lasting growth and more and better jobs, » Martens and Zuleeg explain.

The simplified Lisbon Agenda rests on three pillars:

• An ‘economic pillar’ to facilitate the transition to a competitive, dynamic, knowledge-based economy through more research and development (R&D), greater innovation, and creating a more dynamic business environment;
• a ‘social pillar’ aimed at modernising the European Social Model by investing in human resources and combating social exclusion, and;
• an ‘environmental pillar’ aimed at greening the economy.

« To respond effectively to the EU’s future challenges, the Lisbon Agenda must encompass a much wider range of issues and indicators as well as focusing more strongly on some of those already included, » suggest the authors.

« Newly-prominent issues, such as climate change and financial-sector reform, must be central in the new framework for structural change, » they write.

They also call for EU policies and the bloc’s budget to be assessed by an independent agency, such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development « to determine how far they foster structural reform ».

EU leaders « must focus on how to create future growth and jobs within the next EU framework, agree a common approach and be frank with citizens about the long-term need to create sustainable jobs and growth instead of resorting to short-term populist rhetoric, » they conclude.