European Parliament resolution on the outcome of the European Council (Brussels, 20/21 March 2003) concerning the Lisbon strategy
Date: 2003-03-27
Institutions: European Parliament
Subjects: European Union, economic and social cohesion, economic policy, social policy, stability pact, sustainable development

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(cid:1) reception and accommodation can be provided by the Member States, any food and clothing needed

can be made available and psychological or medical assistance be provided in case of need,

(cid:1) an authority in every Member State is assigned to be the Commission’s sole interlocutor in carrying

out refugee projects;

Calls on the Council, in the event of a sudden influx of refugees or displaced persons from Iraq, to

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ensure that the burden on human resources is shared among all the Member States;

7.
Calls on the Commission and the Council to take all necessary steps to ensure that, if need be,
international aid organisations can be given financial help to take care of war refugees in safe areas of
Iraq or neighbouring countries;

8.
Calls on the Council presidency and the Commission to persuade the Member States to make more
intensive use of the Community programmes AGIS and ARGO; considers that, in particular, involvement
of the candidate countries should be stepped up in the interests of developing uniform standards;

Calls on the Council and the Commission to make every endeavour to ensure that, as soon as
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possible and on the basis of identical standards, joint external border security is provided at all the Union’s
external borders and that units of border guards are made available, as soon as possible and at the request
of the Member States, to back up national border guards;

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Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the parlia-

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ments and governments of the Member States.

P5_TA(2003)0127

Outcome of the European Council (Brussels, 20/21 March 2003)

European Parliament resolution on the outcome of the European Council (Brussels, 20/21 March
2003) concerning the Lisbon strategy

The European Parliament,

(cid:1) having regard to the Presidency Conclusions of the Brussels European Council of 20/21 March 2003

concerning the Lisbon strategy and its implementation,

(cid:1) having regard to the Lisbon European Council conclusions of 23/24 March 2000, the Göteborg Euro-
pean Council conclusions of 15/16 June 2001, the Barcelona European Council conclusions of 15/
16 March 2002 and the conclusions of 16 September 2002 on the outcome of the World Summit on
Sustainable Development,

(cid:1) having regard to the Tripartite Social Summit held in Brussels prior to the Spring European Council

on 20 March 2003,

A. whereas the intended purpose of the Spring European Council is to take stock of progress in meeting
the strategic Lisbon goal, which has fallen considerably behind schedule and risks missing many of the
target dates set in Lisbon,

B. whereas the outcome of the war in Iraq, together with the humanitarian and reconstruction needs, is
as yet unknown, and the consequences for the world economy and the multilateral trading system
have yet to unfold,

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C. whereas it is of great importance for the new Member States to be fully integrated in the modern-
isation of the European economic, social and environmental model, and its strategy for sustainable
development, with respect to the implementation of the objectives and mechanisms of the Lisbon
strategy,

1.
Agrees with the European Council that promoting sustainable growth, creating more and better jobs,
competitiveness, and modernising the European social model must remain firmly at the top of the Union’s
agenda; notes the way in which the European Council has taken steps to introduce a more operational
approach towards achieving the economic, social and environmental objectives for 2010, although there
remains a gap between strategic goals and concrete actions;

2.
Reiterates that, to restore credibility to the Lisbon strategy, this must be followed through by deter-
mined action, especially by larger Member States, to advance in parallel the four priority objectives laid
down by the European Council, and which the European Parliament can support;

3.
Reiterates its support for the Lisbon strategy, and points out that much has to be done to ensure that
all programming is dovetailed together in a way which brings the accession countries fully into the com-
mon endeavour; points to the need to pay more attention to the scoreboard of Member States’ progress in
fulfilling their Lisbon agenda commitments, and therefore calls for a detailed roadmap from the Commis-
sion by October 2003, indicating how the agreed objectives will be reached by 2010;

4.
Takes the view that the current Employment Strategy, as recently reshaped to include the quality of
jobs and to strike the right balance between flexibility and security, is an efficient instrument to foster
employment in the European Union; believes, furthermore, that the Employment Committee (EMCO),
established in accordance with Article 130 of the EC Treaty, is best placed to assess employment issues;

5.
Considers, therefore, that there was no need to create a new Task Force on Employment; calls on the
Council to limit the remit of such a task force, for example to identifying practical reform measures to be
addressed without delay, and to report to the EP about its work;

6.
Stresses its commitment to the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) and supports the intelligent and
flexible application of the Pact in the ways proposed by the Commission, in particular the stronger empha-
sis on overall debt levels of individual Member States, taking into account public investment requirements
(cid:1) especially when those investments are considered by the Commission to be consistent with the Lisbon
and Stockholm strategy and, for that reason, of common interest;

7.
Emphasises the vital importance of SMEs for the economic fabric of the Member States and encour-
ages, accordingly, all measures to foster entrepreneurship in the European Union; stresses, in this context,
the importance of implementing rapidly the recommendations of the European Charter for Small Enter-
prises as well as the Action Plan for ‘Simplifying and improving the regulatory environment’; agrees with
the Council that all major draft legislation should be subject to a comprehensive impact assessment taking
account of the three pillars of the Lisbon strategy and considered separately by the Competitiveness Coun-
cil;

Reiterates its support for the Lisbon strategy, but believes that the open method of coordination and

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peer review are not sufficient on their own to bring about the dynamic structural changes required;

Takes note of the application of the open method of coordination in support of research and inno-
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vation policy, in the expectation of seeing more concrete evidence of progress towards the goal of earm-
arking 3 % of GDP for R & D and encouraging innovative and effective links between research and new
business opportunities; recognises that remedial action must be taken to create the conditions which
ensure that our scientists and innovative companies stay in Europe, drawing attention to the importance
of basic research, which supplies the fundamental scientific knowledge vital to innovation;

Fully endorses the European Council’s call for effective application by Member States of legislation
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already agreed for strengthening the internal market and for connecting Europe,
in order to establish
certainty and clarity for business and investment across Europe; the creation of a significant number of

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Europe-wide and national public-private partnership investment projects (operating in such areas as edu-
cation and training, lifelong learning, research, environmentally friendly production, information and fron-
tier technologies, telecommunications, energy and transportation networks) will be of great importance for
the future of the European economy;

Regrets the absence of concrete progress in the field of environmental indicators for sound assess-
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ment of sustainable development,
including the adoption of quantified sectoral environmental targets
within the Cardiff process and the adoption of a mechanism to evaluate the implementation of the out-
come of the Johannesburg Summit;

12.
Encourages Member States, when carrying out the EU’s climate change policy aimed at implement-
ing the Kyoto Protocol, to follow the same integrated approach adopted at EU level; strongly supports the
call issued by the European Council to other parties, and especially the Russian Federation, to ratify the
Kyoto Protocol as soon as possible, as this will allow its entry into force, and welcomes the forthcoming
visit to the Duma by a specific EP delegation on this subject;

13. Welcomes the agreement on the energy tax directive which will set a minimum excise duty level for
oil products, gas, electricity and coal; is deeply concerned, however, that the European Council had to
postpone again the final agreement on the tax package;

14. Welcomes the commitments on environmental
liability, greenhouse gas emission reduction and
intelligent energy; urges the Council again, however, to promote the removal of subsidies that have
negative effects on the environment and to take steps to develop an ambitious EU plan for the devel-
opment of clean technologies;

15.
Points out that the fight against poverty and social exclusion is a vital objective of the integrated
strategy and insists it is essential to coordinate efforts to improve and safeguard social protection systems
organised and financed in accordance with high social principles and standards; welcomes the European
Council’s commitment to keep up the momentum of pension reform by Member States, given the inter-
action between pension reform, employment policy, sound public finances and social cohesion;

16.
In the context of education, draws attention to the emphasis on education and vocational training
for enhancing skills, languages, digital literacy and lifelong learning; the commitments must be matched by
concrete measures through the Skills and Mobility Action Plan, the European Structural Funds and other
programmes that may be proposed, together with the rapid reform of Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 (1) on
the application of social security schemes;

17. Welcomes the European Council’s firm statement on the need for concrete measures to speed up
reforms of tax and benefit systems and of the labour market, especially by improving wage formulation
systems, modernising employment legislation and integrating underemployed sections of the population
which suffer discrimination, as defined under Article 13 of the EC Treaty, which covers gender, disability,
race, age, religion and sexual orientation, and invites the Commission and the Council to develop these
ideas further; calls on the Member States fully to implement Directive 2002/73/EC (2);

18. Welcomes the formal establishment of the Tripartite Social Summit prior to the Spring European
Council, since the social partners can play an important role in implementing the Lisbon agenda, for
example in the areas of lifelong learning and investment in human capital; underlines that this role must
be strengthened; reiterates the contribution made by the voluntary sector and non-standard forms of busi-
ness organisation to increasing employment and delivering other public policy objectives;

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the governments

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and parliaments of the Member States and accession countries and the social partners.

(1) OJ L 149, 5.7.1971, p. 2.
(2) European Parliament and Council Directive 2002/73/EC of 23 September 2002 amending Council Directive 76/
207/EEC on the implementation of the principle of equal treatment for men and women as regards access to
employment, vocational training and promotion, and working conditions (OJ L 269, 5.10.2002, p. 15).