Lisbon, 23/03/2000 (Agence Europe) - The Heads of State and Government, gathered in Lisbon this Thursday and Friday in the special European Council dedicated to economic reform, employment and innovation, reached, after the first working session, a large consensus on the proposal by the Portuguese Presidency for an "annual social and economic meeting" each spring and on the main elements aiming to make the Union the most competitive and dynamic economy, capable of sustained growth coupled with a quantitative and qualitative improvement of employment and greater social cohesion. The elements of this strategy are: a) prepare the transition towards a growth economy; b) implement the economic reforms favouring competition and innovation; c) modernise the European social model (by investing in human resources and in fighting against social exclusion).
To cement these priorities, the Member States must cover a series of objectives included in a timetable, notably including: i) average growth in the EU of 3% during a sustained period; ii) full employment in 2010; iii) an employment rate similar to that in the United States (around 70%); iv) a series of intermediary objectives in terms of economic, and social reform, education and development of information society. The conclusions that the European Council must adopt this Friday and which, according to the Presidency's intentions, should not exceed fifteen pages and should contain twenty odd precise objectives, partly with figures and accompanied with deadlines (partly non-binding). The aim of the new presidency is to reach a satisfactory equilibrium between the economic and social aspect of this new strategy, and assert a concrete ambition at a European level while respecting the national differences.
During this very intense Summit, dedicated to a single theme (the discussion over international policy issues where mainly centred on the Balkans), the participation of Austria, through Chancellor Wolfgang Schussel, the Minister for Foreign Affairs Benita Ferrero-Waldner and the Minister for Finances Karl-Heinz Grasser were not noted for any incidents. The internal situation in Austria was only raised during a working dinner, the aim being that Wolfgang Schussel explain this situation and that the Council President Antonio Guterres, and him alone, answer him in reminding him of the position taken on the 31st of January by the Fourteen other Member States with regard to bilateral relations with Austria. While recent information has circulated over a certain weariness that is starting to be seen in certain Member State concerning bilateral sanctions, the Fourteen intended maintaining a united front over this issue, the idea being that measure decided by the fourteen Member States can only be broken though a decision by the fourteen. As for the traditional "family picture" Mr. Schussel was present with all his colleagues: the Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs Mr. Michel indicated that (while his Prime Minister Mr. Verhofstadt was there) he preferred not being present so as to confirm the coherence of the policy adopted by his country concerning bilateral relations with Austria.
Maria Joao Rodrigues: "it was worth taking the risk"
In the last morning on Thursday, Professor Maria Joao Rodrigues, who has played an important role in the preparation of this Summit (see yesterday's EUROPE, p. 7/8) already announced: "we have reached a consensus on the new strategy for the European Union. It was worth taking the risk" "of making ambitious proposals" Mrs. Rodrigues signalled that the agreement reached concerns the objectives for information society, access for all schools to the internet, an new approach to research policy and also on the holding of the European Council that each spring will set the main economic and social policy priorities and will give a precise mandate to the different Councils. We do not want to increase the European Union workload, but simply agree that the spring summit concentrates in these issues, she stated, adding that the main guidelines of economic policy should become the central tool so as to improve the coordination between macro-economic policies and social policy.
Furthermore, the European Commissioner for economic and monetary affairs Pedro Solbes indicated to the press that President Prodi had, during the morning debate, incited Europe to grasp the unique opportunity offered by the present phase of economic growth to try something new, without pushing aside economic policy that enables it to establish a "culture of stability", but by placing Europe in position to reap the benefits of the "new economy" and so of becoming more dynamic and competitive.
In this process, said Mr Solbes, "we must make use of past experience, which led to the single market and the single currency, and see whether objective criteria can be applied in the areas that are the focus of this summit".
Jospin: The future French Presidency will propose adoption at the Nice Summit
of a European social agenda for the next five years
French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin announced straight away that, in the second half of this year, the French Presidency intended to promote a "European social agenda", for a period of five years or more, establishing actions to be carried out in the social sphere at European level. "If the principle is endorsed in the conclusions of this summit, we can set the objective of adopting this social agenda at the end of the year in Nice", he stated. Regarding the summit under way, he noted that "today, we are putting emphasis on new priorities without creating new procedures", and he insisted on several aspects France considers essential, including: - making full employment the "objective that guides all our economic and social choices" and giving priority to increasing the rate of employment in the run-up to 2010; - creating in Europe the conditions for strong, sustainable and non-inflationary growth; in his view, the adoption in Lisbon of an "objective of average growth of at least 3% per annum for the coming years" would be "very important" and there is also a need, so as to "improve the consistency of our policies", to establish a "scoreboard for a small number of strategic indicators".
During the morning working session, most participants stressed the necessity of maintaining growth: "We must make this growth stable and sustainable", observed Italian Prime Minister D'Alema, Luxembourg's Prime Minister Juncker and Greek Prime Minister Simitis. Danish Prime Minsiter Rasmussen welcomed the idea of an annual summit on economic and social priorities and Finnish Prime Minister Persson welcomed the fact that there is now talk of full employment (he was the only one to mention the problem of the environment). Spanish Prime Minister Aznar insisted on structural reform and liberalisation. One of the main unsettled questions is whether the summit conclusions will contain specific commitments on the liberalisation of transport and energy. France in particular took the view that this summit is not the place for discussing that subject, but UK Prime Minister Blair mentioned this liberalisation during the afternoon discussion. German Chancellor Schröder stressed the need for balance between the economic and social spheres and Austrian Chancellor Schüssel insisted on the proper working of financial markets and the development of research. Finland's Finance Minister Niinisto (standing in for Prime Minister Lipponen, absent for reasons of health) welcomed the Presidency's proposals on the information society while noting that the new technologies are primarily a tool at the service of certain objectives.
While the first morning's exchange of views revealed a large measure of convergence on the course to take, in spite of some nuances, debate on the afternoon of the first day of the summit was more laborious, because it addressed less consensual issues, namely social questions and employment. One of the most sensitive aspects discussed at this session (in which the Finance Ministers and Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Pedro Solbes Mira participated) was reform of pensions and one of the summit's conclusions is expected to be the creation of a high-level working party on the establishment of a sustainable long-term pension system.
Balkans: Solana and Patten will be given a mandate by the summit to co-ordinate
EU policy in the region
At their joint lunchtime meeting on Thursday, the Heads of State and Government, the Foreign Ministers and the European Commission discussed the necessity of making the EU's action in the Balkans more coherent, more incisive and more visible (the problem of Kosovo was discussed in this context). The intention of the European Council is to give the EU Council Secretary General/CFSP High Representative Javier Solana and European Commissioner for External Relations Chris Patten a mandate to provide political co-ordination of the Union's action in South East Europe, to make certain adjustments to EU policy for this region without modifying it (so as to take account of the situation in Serbia, where sanctions have not weakened President Milosevic, but where there is a need to continue providing support for civil society and democratic forces) and to exploit in full the potential that the process of stabilisation and association with the EU represents for the pursuit of economic and democratic reform in the countries concerned.