Brussels, 12/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - Seven years after the launch of the Lisbon strategy and after its revision in 2005, “we are beginning to see some successes,” said Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquín Almunia at the conference organised by the Committee of the Regions and the Institute for Economic Research at Munich University (Ifo). The event, entitled “Lisbon: Bringing the goalposts nearer”, was the first in a series of annual conferences, which has been named IfoBrIEF (Ifo Brussels International Economic Forum), and which aims to increase the contribution of economic experts in drawing up European policies.
It was still too soon to credit Lisbon agenda measures with the fine state of the European economy or the fall in unemployment, Mr Almunia said cautiously, but he noted that there was a strong link between structural elements and the current upswing. “I am confident to conclude that Lisbon reforms are working,” but much more remains to be achieved, he said. “While the pick up in productivity is indeed reassuring, there is still large room for improvement,” he went on, and EU labour markets had to become more flexible. Faced with the challenges of globalisation and the ageing of the population, the European social model had to be re-assessed to make it more sustainable. Working age people had to be attracted and retained “rather than subsidising inactivity,” he said. In this view he was joined by Ifo President Hans-Werner Sinn. (ab)