Barroso: Lisbon Agenda is working

José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, has declared that the Lisbon Agenda for growth and jobs is working, though he admitted that some of the improvements were due to cyclical factors.

Presenting the latest results of the renewed Lisbon Agenda on Tuesday (11 December), Barroso said: "We are much further along the road to a prosperous Europe than we were two years ago." The EU had the "best results since the 1980s in terms of job creation," he said, creating six and a half million jobs in the last two years while unemployment was down to 7%. Barroso said that the EU should create a further five million new jobs by the end of 2009.

He also highlighted progress in improving the speed for starting new businesses and an agreement by the social partners on flexicurity.

Barroso admitted that "there was a cyclical element" in the figures but insisted that member states reforms had contributed to better results. He pointed out that exports were very strong despite the strength of the euro while public sector deficits were lower despite high energy prices.

But Barroso said that in some of the EU’s biggest economies, "results had not been that impressive" and insisted that there was "no room for complacency".

The Commission president said that he still believed that the EU could reach its target of spending 3% of gross domestic product on research and development by 2010 even though current figures suggest that the EU27 will only reach 2.6% by the target date. This compares with a figure of 1.9% in 2005.

Commission Vice-President Günter Verheugen said that the important issue was that the EU was "closing the gap" with its international competitors. He announced a number of initiatives for 2008 further to improve the EU’s competitive position. These included a small business act to unlock the economic potential of small businesses and more action to protect intellectual property rights.

Barroso said that the EU would launch a new broadband strategy to achieve 30% penetration by 2010 as well as an action plan to reduce early school leaving and improve reading standards.

The Lisbon Agenda was revised in 2005 to give it a clearer focus on a smaller number of policy priorities. The report sets out a number of new policy initiatives. It will be submitted to the EU summit in March 2008.

José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, has declared that the Lisbon Agenda for growth and jobs is working, though he admitted that some of the improvements were due to cyclical factors.