In the context of the Spring Summit on 21 March in Brussels, the President of France, Jacques Chirac, the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder and the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair have addressed a common letter to the President of the European Council, Costas Simitis, insisting on the acceleration of the reforms outlined in the Lisbon Strategy and modernisation of the labour markets in Europe (see broad summary in EUROPE 7 February p 9). Although there are still a few weeks before the...