Madrid, 31/10/2000 (Agence Europe) - At their bilateral summit last Friday in Madrid, the Prime Ministers of Spain and the UK, José Maria Aznar and Tony Blair, wrote to President Prodi and the Heads of Government of the other Member States, as Mr Aznar told the press, to explain how they intend to "give impetus" to the process of economic and social reforms set in motion by the European Council in Lisbon on 23 and 24 March last. "We wish to accelerate this reform process to guarantee jobs, growth and the protection of our social security systems for the future", said Mr Aznar. Tony Blair declared: "The goal of our joint letter to Romano Prodi and the other European leaders is to assure that there will not be a loss of the political impetus for economic reform acquired some six months ago at the Lisbon Summit. We will have the occasion, at the Stockholm Summit in March (23-24 March) to review this subject and assure ourselves that we are actively promoting this agenda", said the British Prime Minister.
In their joint declaration on the priorities for the Lisbon "strategic agenda" (to which EUROPE will return), the two Heads of Government insist in particular on faster market opening (notably conclusion of the telecoms package for June 2001, full liberalisation of the gas and electricity markets by 2004, a reduction in state aid (from 1.1% of GNP at present to 0.9% in 2003 and 0.7% in 2005) and adoption of indicators making it possible to check on the progress of the Lisbon strategy, thanks to the new "method of open coordination".