Lisbon Strategy / EU 2020

©BDI

The Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Employment agreed on by the European heads of state and government in 2000 will expire this year.

The EU Commission is currently drafting the “EU 2020” strategy which is being designed as the successor to the current Lisbon Strategy.

The “EU 2020” strategy is to be the main topic at the EU Spring Summit to be held in Brussels on 25/26 March 2010.  

The EU Commission has launched a public consultation on the “EU 2020” strategy. The BDI and BDA have drawn up a joint contribution.  

The objective of the Lisbon Strategy to make the EU the “most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economic area in the world” by 2010 will not be achieved. The jointly agreed objectives in the key areas of economic, labour market and research policy were not achieved. This was not only due to the severe worldwide financial and economic crisis. Implementation deficits as well as a lack of coherence in the reform efforts, both at European and national level, have prevented the strategy succeeding from the very beginning.

To make the EU 2020 strategy a success, coherent reform initiatives are required in the fields of the internal market, enhanced legislation, currency and finances, SME policy, industrial and employment policy as well as foreign trade and demography. These should be resolutely implemented both at national and European level. It is important that the EU Commission take industry’s competitiveness into due account when drawing up draft proposals. Proposals such as the most recent anti-discrimination directive and the Commission initiatives on collective redress damage companies’ competitiveness and impede the EU 2020 strategy’s objectives. Only an internationally competitive economy can create growth and jobs.

• It will be crucial to continue to pursue a strategy for growth and employment after 2010.
• Both Member States and EU institutions should now boost competitiveness, in particular through innovation. The EU Commission is called on to draw up appropriate draft legislation.
• The efficiency and communicability of the EU 2020 strategy should be substantially enhanced: Procedures should be simplified, national reporting obligations reduced.