Resuscitating the Lisbon Agenda

The Slovenian presidency plans to inject new vim into the Lisbon Agenda’s final three-year cycle by focusing more on achievements made so far than on demoralising number-crunching.

The strategy, which aims to make the EU more competitive, sets ambitious targets on research and development spending that most member states look set to flunk.

The Slovenes, who will launch the new strategy guidelines at the European Council in March, intend to steer member states on to more positive ground. "We want to have a political debate on what the Lisbon Strategy has achieved and how we go forward and what adjustments are needed," says a Slovenian diplomat.

Žiga Turk, the Slovenian minister responsible for Lisbon targets, indicated earlier this month that the debate will now revolve around creativity, a non-measurable deliverable that is nonetheless a central element of the strategy.

Turk favoured creativity over innovation, arguing that the latter on its own is not sufficient to boost competitiveness. The idea is that Europe will have to nurture its creative talent if it is to develop the kind of risk-taking environment that will eventually drive economic gains.

Switching from targets to talents in the final phase of the strategy could help to lift flagging spirits, but may be a little vague to satisfy policymakers. "It is an intriguing idea. How they expect to translate that into amendments to the integrated guidelines is anyone’s guess," says Iain Begg, a visiting professor at the European Institute of the London School of Economics.

Begg believes that the Lisbon Strategy is due a rethink in its last phase, expressing scepticism about "the hard elements of knowledge intensity". Of all member states, only Finland and Sweden look set to meet the 3% target for R&D spending as a proportion of gross domestic product by the 2010 deadline and this despite a 10% increase in corporate R&D spending last year reported by the Commission in October.

Economic priorities

• Better regulation - continued efforts to achieve EU aim of slashing red tape by a quarter by 2012. The presidency will lead a debate on the Commission’s strategic review, expected in early 2008.

• Stability of financial markets - discussions among member states, industry and regulators on improving the transparency of financial markets.

• Telecoms reform - wrangling among member states expected over Commission proposals to set up super regulator with the power to force companies to separate their network and services arms.

• Taxation - attempts to drive forward the debate on VAT fraud, which costs the EU an estimated €50 billion a year. The Commission will issue proposals early in 2008.

The Slovenian presidency plans to inject new vim into the Lisbon Agenda’s final three-year cycle by focusing more on achievements made so far than on demoralising number-crunching.