Lisbon Agenda set to go global

Government leaders are to discuss at their EU summit next week (18-19 October) how to make the Lisbon Agenda a standard for economic and social development across the world, exporting European values across the globe.

The topic has been added to the agenda of the summit, which will be dominated by negotiations on a reform treaty, at the suggestion of the Portuguese presidency, with high-level support from France and Germany. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, wrote jointly to the Portuguese government in September giving explicit support to the idea of adding the external dimension of the Lisbon Agenda to the summit programme.

Officials say that taking the Union’s flagship project on competitiveness ‘global’ is the best way to project the ‘soft power’ of the EU. The thinking is that the EU can shape globalisation if it can export its model for development, combining sustainable growth, social justice and concern for the environment.

China, India and Brazil, which have shown strong interest in the Lisbon Agenda since it was launched in 2000, have adopted similar strategies. Other countries are studying the EU experience and the Portuguese presidency is suggesting that strategies modelled on the Lisbon Agenda should be part of agreements between the EU and third countries.

At the end of September the Portuguese presidency held a workshop with senior officials from China to discuss common challenges and ways to prepare for globalisation. It is organising a similar discussion with officials from Brazil in Lisbon on 5-6 November. According to the official behind this drive, next week in Lisbon EU leaders will be "following up on this strategic dialogue".

Maria João Rodrigues, who helped draft the Lisbon Agenda during the previous Portuguese presidency in 2000, is now a special adviser for the EU presidency to José Socrates, Portugal’s prime minister. She said: "I have no illusions: it is not possible for Europe to have success in this agenda unless our international partners go the same way: combine sustainable growth with protection of the environment."

She said that during Germany’s presidency of the EU in the first half of 2007, the EU had "tested the approach with the US". At a summit in Washington on 30 April, the EU and the US launched a Transatlantic Economic Council to oversee a broad move to achieve regulatory convergence between decision-makers on both sides of the Atlantic.

"It is a good example, now we need this [co-operation] with others - China, India, Brazil," she added.

Rodrigues represented the EU at the workshop with Chinese officials in Paris, along with a European Commission official from the directorate-general for external affairs. "We discussed three common problems: energy pollution - a huge problem for China, very important for Europe, as it can offer new opportunities to European companies - science and technology - the Chinese need lots of expertise and at the same time this could open new markets for us - and building social protection: a huge task for which China also needs our expertise," said Rodrigues.

A member state diplomat said that by "exporting the Lisbon Agenda", the EU was engaged in a "subtle exercise of spreading its values, through a more powerful instrument than military means, with deeper results".

But Rodrigues warned that calls by some EU leaders, including Sarkozy, to protect Europe against globalisation, were dangerous. "This approach leads to a protectionist position. At stake is not protection, but preparing Europe for globalisation. We should be clear about our aims: we want to open markets, because it is a win-win. But the opening of markets should be corrected with certain standards."

Third countries should not be urged "to comply with our standards, something they are often not able to do", Rodrigues said, adding:

"We should address challenges together."

Government leaders are to discuss at their EU summit next week (18-19 October) how to make the Lisbon Agenda a standard for economic and social development across the world, exporting European values across the globe.