ORIGIN
 
The informal beginning of the Lisbon Strategy dates back to the nineties, when certain parallel reform processes existed in the EU. The Luxembourg process brought the first guidelines on employment. The Cardiff process launched the initiative for integrating the internal market and structural reforms, which would assist the EU in overcoming the then financial crisis. The Cologne process introduced an initiative for social dialogue. The processes were mainly ineffective, as reflected by the EU’s decreasing competitive advantage in relation to the USA and the rapidly developing Asian countries. The 2000 Spring European Council in Lisbon therefore agreed that the EU needed a strategy which would help Europe "to become the most competitive and knowledge-based economy in the world" by 2010.
 
The Lisbon Strategy was augmented at the 2001 Spring European Council in Stockholm and also in Barcelona in 2002. The Swedish Presidency integrated the environmental dimension into the Lisbon Strategy, while the Spanish Presidency put more stress on the social dimension and introduced a target of 3% of GDP for research and development spending.

 
REFORM

Soon after the Lisbon Strategy was adopted, critical remarks were exchanged about the Lisbon Strategy not yielding the expected results. A plethora of overly broad objectives, opposing priorities and poor coordination between the EU Member States were supposedly to blame. 
 
With a view to eliminating these flaws, the 2004 Spring European Council conclusions mandated former Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok to present a proposal for reforming the Lisbon Strategy. The Kok Report was duly presented in November 2004, and was a basis for the re-launched Lisbon Strategy adopted by the 2005 Spring European Council. The revised Lisbon Strategy focussed narrowly on economic growth and employment, while giving equal importance to all three dimensions: economic, social and environmental.
 
The re-launched Lisbon Strategy also addresses the issue of governance. In order to improve the governance of the Lisbon Strategy, two three-year cycles were established (2005–2008 and 2008–2011). After the first cycle, the Commission prepared a strategic report to serve as a basis for continuing with the second cycle.
 
The revised Lisbon Strategy is based on a set of Integrated Guidelines, combining employment guidelines with broad economic policy guidelines. After the first three-year cycle, the Integrated Guidelines were supposed to be re-examined and, if appropriate, renewed.
 
In order to improve ownership of the Lisbon Strategy, the EU Member States were also obliged to prepare National Reform Programmes (NRPs) setting out progress towards the Lisbon objectives, and appoint a national coordinator for monitoring the implementation of the Strategy. Annual implementation updates to the NRPs must be submitted to the Commission, with a new NRP to be presented at the start of every 3-year cycle.

Coordination of Lisbon policies is carried out under the open method of coordination, which involves voluntary coordination of Member States' policies in areas where the EU does not have exclusive competence. Emphasis is placed on the exchange of good practices and experiences between the Member States. Every year, the Commission prepares an overview of progress towards Lisbon objectives and publishes it in a report to the Spring European Council. At the same time, the Commission prepares recommendations for the EU Member States concerning implementation of their National Reform Programmes as required by the Lisbon Strategy.


FIRST THREE-YEAR CYCLE

1. First report on the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy
 
In accordance with the renewed governance of the Lisbon Process, and on the basis of Slovenia’s Development Strategy, Slovenia submitted a National Reform Programme intended to meet the Lisbon objectives to the European Commission in autumn 2005. In the report, special attention was paid to reforms regarding the efficient creation, transfer and use of knowledge; actions contributing to enhanced economic competitiveness and leading to increased economic growth; and reforms focusing on modernisation of the welfare state and increased employment. The National Reform Programme primarily stresses actions promoting sustainable development and efforts toward a more efficient and cost-effective state.
 
In January 2006, the European Commission combined the contributions of the EU Member States and presented its first annual report on the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy. In its report, the Commission evaluated National Reform Programmes and proposed four areas for meeting the Lisbon objectives where the European Union should focus as a priority:
 
– Investment in knowledge and innovation;
 
– Creation of a more favourable business environment;
 
– Creating more and better new jobs while maintaining social cohesion and facing the challenges of demographic change;
 
– Energy and climate change.

In spring 2006, the European Council approved these four priority areas, and other objectives aimed at attaining the Lisbon goals:
 
– The Member States should establish a "one-stop-shop" system by the end of 2007, which would allow the establishment of a business in no more than one week;
 
– By the end of 2007, the Member States should provide employment, further education or a traineeship for all individuals within six months of their leaving the education system.

 
2. Second report on the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy

Considering the proposals of the European Commission and the conclusions of the 2006 Spring European Council, Slovenia prepared a report in 2006 on bringing the reform programme for the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy into effect. Among other things, the report presented actions in the area of taxation and social affairs aimed at encouraging citizens to take jobs and incentivising businesses to increase employment and investment in research and development. Important new measures were also adopted in the field of research and development: actions to increase the number of researchers in the business sector, and measures for encouraging transfers from the public to the business sector were carried out on the basis of the national research programme. The share of financing for applied and developmental research was also increased, along with incentives for the establishment of new higher education institutions. The Slovenian government’s first Lisbon implementation report reflected endeavours to create a more supportive business environment for enterprises, with attention being given in particular to eliminating administrative obstacles, encouraging competition in network industries (especially telecommunications), promoting public-private partnerships, and investing in infrastructure. Furthermore, measures for increasing the employment of older persons (Active Ageing Strategy) and encouraging their prolonged (and at least part-time), activity were prepared, with additional incentives for individual pension insurance at the preparation stage.
 
Drawing on the contributions from the EU Member States, the European Commission adopted the second report on implementing reforms intended to fulfil the Lisbon objectives in December 2006, entitled “A year of delivery”. On the basis of this report, the 2007 Spring European Council adopted the following orientations regarding the Lisbon Strategy:
 
– It approved the future strategy for innovation, as adopted by the Competitiveness Council;
 
– It approved the "flexicurity" initiative on employment;
 
– It reiterated the commitment to reducing administrative burdens by 25% at the EU level by 2012, while the EU Member States were bound to set comparably ambitious objectives; and
 
– Numerous commitments were made in the field of energy and climate change.
 
 
SECOND THREE-YEAR CYCLE

At the Spring European Council in March 2008, the Slovenian Presidency launched the second three-year cycle of the Lisbon Strategy.

The European Council confirmed that the revised Lisbon Strategy from 2005 yielded positive results and called for consistent implementation of reforms within the existing four-pillar structure (investing in knowledge and innovation, unlocking business potential, particularly of SMEs, investing in people and modernising labour markets, and energy and climate change).

The European Council confirmed that the Integrated Guidelines (Broad Economic Policy Guidelines and Employment Guidelines) were to remain valid for the period 2008–2010 and invited the Council to adopt the Integrated Guidelines formally, in accordance with the Treaty. The expectations of the Presidency were thus met, both with regard to the Lisbon Strategy focusing on implementation within existing structures and  the launch of the new cycle of the Strategy at the Spring European Council. 

In the framework of the Lisbon Strategy governance, the European Council called for a reinforced exchange of good practices and for seizing opportunities offered by the existing open method of coordination, stressing in particular the importance of coordination within the euro area.

The European Council for the first time adopted conclusions relating to the future of the Lisbon Strategy after 2010. It also invited the Commission, the Council and the national Lisbon coordinators to start reflecting on the future of the Lisbon Strategy in the post-2010 period. It stated that after 2010, a sustained EU-level commitment to structural reforms, sustainable development and social cohesion would be necessary in order to lock in the progress achieved by the re-launched Lisbon Strategy for growth and jobs.

The conclusions also drew particular attention to the following priorities in the framework of the Lisbon Strategy:   

-    As a key factor for future growth, the full development of the potential for innovation and creativity of European citizens was mentioned. Particular attention was paid to the introduction of the "fifth freedom", namely the free movement of knowledge, expected to complement the four existing freedoms. The fifth freedom should be based on enhancing the cross-border mobility of researchers, students, scientists and university teaching staff. In order to achieve the actual movement of knowledge, it would be essential to facilitate and promote the optimal use of intellectual property, to launch a new generation of world-class research facilities and to promote the mutual recognition of qualifications. The requirements would be resumed in the so called ‘’Ljubljana process’’ to be approved at the May Competitiveness Council.

-    On the basis of the Single Market Review, the Council pointed out several priority actions to further improve the functioning of the internal market. Effective measures concerning the remaining barriers to the four freedoms laid down in the Treaty would have to be adopted annually. The internal market should promote market opening both within the EU and on an international level. The EU should therefore continue its endeavours to shape globalisation by reinforcing the external dimension of the revised Lisbon Strategy.

-    Progress made during 2007 on better regulation was the main reason for improvements to the competitiveness of EU business, in particular SMEs. The European Council invited all Council formations to focus on better regulation in their regulatory work.

-    In order to reinforce the EU's SMEs policy and to allow SMEs to operate more effectively in the Single Market, the following actions were proposed: Small Business Act; support for research-performing and innovative SMEs; further facilitation of access to finance; and facilitation of increased participation of innovative SMEs in clusters and in public procurement.

-    When launching the new cycle of the renewed Lisbon Strategy, the importance of the social dimension of the EU was again stressed; the European Council reiterated the need to improve coordination of economic, employment and social policies. In this context, the education element of the knowledge triangle “research-innovation-education” was highlighted as the basis for further activities. Investing more and more effectively in education was of key importance not only for Europe’s success in a globalised world, but also one of the most effective ways to fight inequality and poverty. The European Council also stressed the importance of Member States implementing flexicurity arrangements at the national level.

Link:

European Commission – Lisbon Strategy

Contact:

Petra Draušbaher Krušič

t: 01 478 2480

f: 01 478 2486

e: petra.drausbaher-krusic@gov.si

(last change: 21.04.2008)