THE COMMUNITY DIMENSION OF THE LISBON STRATEGY
In June of 2005, in the context of the Renewed Lisbon Strategy focused on growth and jobs, the European Council approved the Integrated Guidelines for Growth and Jobs, which constitute the basis for the national programmes of the Member States. As a counter-balance to the national programmes, the European Council invited the Commission to present a “Community Lisbon Programme” taking in all the actions on the community level. This Programme followed the structure of the Integrated Guidelines for Growth and Jobs. The policy measures proposed touch upon these three main areas:
• Knowledge and innovation as engines for growth;
• Making Europe a more attractive space to invest and work;
• To create more and better jobs;
Thus, in July of 2005, the European Commission presented the “COMMUNITY LISBON PROGRAMME – AN AGENDA FOR GROWTH AND JOBS” which complements that national action programmes for growth and jobs of the Member States. This community programme included 50 initiatives (regulatory actions, financing actions and policy development) for implementation on the community level, seeking to emphasise the European economic reform agenda for growth and jobs.
These 50 measures were grouped into eight key measures:
1. Promotion of knowledge and innovation;
2. Reform of state assistance policies;
3. Simplification of the regulatory framework;
4. Finalisation of the internal services market;
5. Reaching a global accord on Doha;
6. Reducing the obstacles to mobility for citizens, workers and researchers;
7. Development of a common perspective on economic integration;
8. Rallying efforts to combat the social effects of economic re-structuring.
As with the National Programmes, this Programme was the object of an annual performance report, submitted every year in October.
LISBON COMMUNITY PROGRAMME 2005
Implementation Report of the Community Lisbon Programme 2006
Proposal of the Community Lisbon Programme for the period 2008-2010 (Dec 2007)
In December of 2007, together with the elaboration of the National Reform Programmes for the 2008-2010 time frame, the European Commission presented its proposal for the Community Lisbon Programme (CLP) for the period 2008-2010, which defines the 10 broad objectives organized into 5 principal domains, and the corresponding political measures which should orient the community actions for the next three years.
This proposal of a new CLP, based on the Integrated Guidelines and the four priority areas defined by the 2006 Spring European Council, establishes a series of ambitious but realistic actions which should be carried out and accomplished on the community level by 2010.
In March of 2008, in the light of the priorities defined by the Council, the European Council invited the European Commission and the European Parliament to join it in continuing to support the 10 objectives identified in the CLP in terms of their respective spheres of expertise and responsibility.
Implementation of the Community Lisbon Programme (CLP) by area
The implementation of the CLP is being carried out in accordance with the 4 priority areas of the Lisbon Strategy, which increases the realisation of the external dimension of Lisbon Agenda on the community-wide level and the 10 defined objectives.
This item seeks to follow up on the implementation of the CLP by showing the main news points and results already make public.
Area 1: Investing in people and modernising the labour markets
Area 2: Creating a more dynamic business environment, particularly for SMEs
Area 3: Investment in knowledge and innovation