CER Report: Lisbon Agreement – Can Europe Compete?

In 2005, the EU is half-way through its ten-year ‘Lisbon’ reform programme. But it is, if
anything, even further away from its stated objective of becoming the world’s most competitive
economy. Nevertheless, it would be wrong to write the Lisbon agenda off, argues the latest
edition of the CER’s annual Lisbon review. The EU has achieved more than most people realise.
And there are grounds for cautious optimism about the speed of economic reform in the second
half of the decade.

Since the start of the Lisbon programme in 2000, the EU has thrown open is markets for energy,
telecoms, financial services and, to some degree, transport. The EU member-states have passed a raft of measures to reform labour markets and pension systems. And more is to come. Competition from the EU’s new members in Central and Eastern Europe has turned up the heat on the slowgrowing ‘core’ economies, Germany, Italy and France. Slowly but steadily, the EU is moving forward in virtually all the areas covered by the Lisbon agenda.

Read more here.

News Source: Centre for European Reform