ALSO - A new start for the Lisbon Strategy

The Lisbon strategy, which was adopted on 23and 24 March 2000 by the European Council, sets out a "new strategic goal for the Union in order to strengthen employment, economic reform and social cohesion as part of a knowledge-based economy". The strategy's frequently quoted key objective, that the EU should "become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion", was completed in 2001 by the Gothenburg European Council on sustainable development. The Lisbon strategy did not set specific targets for economic performance, but called upon the European institutions and the Member States to refer to a number of measures for economic and social reform through which "an average economic growth rate of around 3% should be a realistic prospect for the coming years". For employment, the Lisbon strategy aimed to raise "the employment rate to an average as close as possible to 70% by 2010, and to increase the number of women in employment to an average of more than 60% by 2010".

The judgement of the Lisbon strategy "mid-term review" in 2004 concluded that results of the first phase were disappointing: while six millions jobs had been created by 2004, economic performance was far from at the 3% average economic growth objective.

The adopted solution for the Lisbon strategy re-launching was to first reduce the number of goals and focus the strategy more strongly on boosting growth and jobs and second to make it work better by making the partnership between the Commission and Member States much stronger and clearer. Instead of several different policy guidelines, targets and reporting processes, just one set of guidelines and two main EU wide targets have been identified: an employment rate of 70% and Research and Development investment of 3% of GDP by 2010.