LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Summer 2009

by Laurent Cohen-Tanugi

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Sir,

Leif Pagrotsky mentions, almost in passing, that the Lisbon agenda is not delivering the promised economic results. European Union policymakers also seem to have forgotten the all-important debate about pursuing the Lisbon strategy ever since the international financial crisis and its dire economic repercussions struck Europe. Yet the Lisbon strategy is highly relevant in the current economic climate. At heart, it’s all about finding ways to strengthen Europe in the globalised economy.

For some critics, the present Lisbon strategy reflects a free market philosophy that is now doomed by the global credit crisis. Others say the strategy and its associated structural reforms must continue more or less unchanged after 2010. In reality, the present economic turmoil validates the spirit of the original agenda agreed in March 2000 which encompassed economic, social and environmental concerns. But the current crisis also underlines the basic weaknesses of the Lisbon strategy, which were spelt out in a report commissioned by the French government last year. This report, which can be found at www.euroworld2015.eu and www.euromonde2015.eu, identified a double flaw: Lisbon is underperforming as an internal EU policy, and it lacks the pan-European external dimension needed if the EU is to act effectively at a global level.

Today, it is clear that economic recovery in Europe and the U.S. will come from a combination of fresh investment in the knowledge economy, innovation, clean and energy efficient technologies and advanced social policies. Meanwhile, the present crisis brutally demonstrates the vulnerability of even successful national reform strategies to the shockwaves of a globalised economy. It also underlines the inability of the EU to confront problems at the European level. The best performers in terms of the Lisbon strategy were not spared by the crisis. And the EU apparently lacks the political, financial or technical means to respond when national economies are hard hit by the unfolding global crisis.

The current crisis also shows how the European economic and political systems are still fragmented along national lines, despite the Single Market and the euro. Such a contradiction appears unsustainable in the long run. Unless we integrate further, we are bound to regress.

The debate on the future of the Lisbon strategy post-2010, launched by the European Council last spring, has so far failed to rise to the occasion. To succeed, the post- Lisbon agenda must evolve into a true European strategy for globalisation. It must be more efficient, improve internal solidarity and acquire enough external Community competences, policies and instruments to shape globalisation. This should be the focus of the European Parliamentary elections in June and the roadmap for the new Commission.