1. The Lisbon lament.
- Subjects
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REFORMS , *KNOWLEDGE management , *ECONOMIC reform , *CONFERENCES & conventions , *PROGRESS reports , *PUBLIC welfare , *ECONOMIC policy - Abstract
The article discusses a paper drawn up by a team led by Wim Kok, a former Dutch prime minister. Kok's brief was to produce a progress report on the so-called Lisbon agenda: the ambition to turn the European Union (EU) into "the world's most competitive, knowledge-based economy by 2010", set at an EU summit in Lisbon in 2000. Kok's view of how things are going at the halfway stage is not encouraging. Unemployment remains high, growth is slow, researchers are moving to America, manufacturers to China. There is also the uncertain outlook for Europe's growing number of pensioners. The structural reforms that are seen as crucial to the revitalisation of the European economy are, above all, the responsibility of national governments. Besides the technical complexity of harmonising social-security reforms across the European continent, experience suggests that the EU is ill-suited to imposing reforms. If real reform is to happen in Europe, it will be hard necessity and the power of example that create the pressure for change. Fortunately, both are being provided by the ten countries that joined the EU in May, particularly the eight from central Europe.
- Published
- 2004