Resolution of the Committee of the Regions on revitalising the Lisbon strategy
Date: 2005-02-24
Institutions: European Committee of the Regions
Subjects: European social policy, competitiveness, economic growth, economic policy, services of general interest, stability pact

5.7.2005

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 164/91

Resolution of the Committee of the Regions on revitalising the Lisbon strategy

(2005/C 164/13)

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS,

HAVING REGARD TO the Report from the High Level Group chaired by Wim Kok on Facing the Challenge.
The Lisbon Strategy for growth and employment (November 2004);

HAVING REGARD TO the Communication from the Commission on the Strategic Objectives 2005 — 2009
— Europe 2010: A Partnership for European Renewal — Prosperity, Solidarity and Security (1);

HAVING REGARD TO the Communication from the Commission on the Commission Work Programme for
2005 (2);

HAVING REGARD TO the Communication from the Commission to the Spring European Council 2005,
Working together for growth and jobs: A new start for the Lisbon Strategy (3);

HAVING REGARD TO its opinion of 29 September 2004 on the Mid-term review of the Lisbon Strategy (CdR
152/2004);

HAVING REGARD TO its opinion of 18 November 2004 on Science and Technology: the key to Europe's future
— Guidelines for future European policy to support research (CdR 194/2004);

HAVING REGARD TO its opinion of 23 February 2005 on the Communication from the Commission to
the Council and the European Parliament entitled Building our Common Future: Policy Challenges and Budgetary
Means of the Enlarged Union 2007-2013 (CdR 162/2004);

HAVING REGARD TO its opinion of 23 February 2005 on the Proposal for a decision of the European
Parliament and of the Council establishing an integrated action programme in the field of lifelong learning (CdR
258/2004);

HAVING REGARD TO its opinion of 23 February 2005 on the Social Dimension of Globalisation (CdR
328/2004);

WHEREAS local and regional authorities are responsible for implementing a large proportion of EU poli-
cies;

WHEREAS local and regional authority involvement in establishing the EU's priorities will greatly enhance
the democratic legitimacy of EU policies;

adopted the following resolution at its 58th plenary session of 23 and 24 February 2005 (meeting
of 24 February).

The objectives of the Lisbon Strategy

1.
reiterates its support for the Lisbon Strategy, its imple-
mentation being the European Union's priority political strategy
until 2010;

2. welcomes the emphasis on the Lisbon Strategy in the
the five-year period
European Commission's priorities
2005-2009;

for

recalls that

3.
the Lisbon objec-
the implementation of
tives (4) calls for an overall strategy involving Member States,

(1) COM(2005) 12, 26.1.2005
(2) COM(2005) 15, 26.1.2005
(3) COM(2005) 24, 2.2.2005
(4) According to the conclusions of the European Lisbon Council of 23

and 24 March, point 5

aimed at economic growth and job creation by stepping up the
process of structural reform for competitiveness and innovation
and by completing the internal market; modernising the Euro-
pean social model, investing in people and combating social
exclusion; sustaining a healthy economic outlook and favour-
able growth prospects by applying an appropriate macro-
economic policy mix; by promoting a knowledge-based
economy by applying policies that are better adapted to the
information society and R&D; and by strengthening regional
cohesion in the European Union (5);

underlines

that proposals

4.
field cannot be
successful without an active and strategic effort for promoting
rights and equality for men and women in all sectors of their
life;

in this

(5) Point 6 of the conclusions

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Achieving the Lisbon Strategy objectives, a credible cohe-
sion policy and an appropriate financial framework for
these aspirations: three inseparable elements

Lisbon objectives, should not be implemented to the detriment
of social cohesion, and should therefore be backed by substan-
tial investment in the economic, social and educational sectors;

5. welcomes the Commission's commitment to proposing
objectives and instruments for a future cohesion policy that
ensures consistency with the Lisbon Strategy but remains
convinced that this commitment cannot translate into fact
unless the European Union has adequate resources;

6.
notes the European Commission's appeal to European
local and regional authorities to participate, within the frame-
work of Structural Fund policy, in designing projects that bring
the latter in step with the Lisbon Strategy (1);

7.
believes that Community structural policies are prime
examples of the added value of European policy. EU investment
in research and development, cross-border trade, and infrastruc-
ture projects is in line with the partnership approach outlined
in the Lisbon Strategy, which aims to strengthen growth,
convergence, competitiveness, and sustainable development;

calls upon the European institutions

8.
to focus on
applying existing decisions effectively and to avoid adopting
new processes or defining new objectives. The Lisbon Strategy
should not serve as indiscriminate justification for all new
Community legislative proposals insofar as it does not obviate
the need for a legal basis under the Treaties or for compliance
with rules of good governance;

Implementing the Lisbon Strategy: towards more consis-
tent and democratic economic and social governance

9.
regrets that the Commission's approach focuses on an
exclusive relationship between the central authorities and the
Member States, and that local and regional authorities cannot
participate through direct levels of communication at the Euro-
pean level. The implementation and delivery of the National
Action Plans is left almost exclusively to the Member States.
Given that the absence of a genuinely decentralised approach is
one of the reasons why the Lisbon agenda is behind schedule,
the CoR reiterates its call for an intensified, more decentralised
implementation of the Lisbon Strategy, as stipulated in the
conclusions of the Lisbon European Council: ‘A fully decentra-
lised approach will be applied in line with the principle of
subsidiarity in which the Union,
the
regional and local levels, as well as the social partners and civil
society, will be actively involved, using variable forms of part-
nership’ (2);

the Member States,

10.
considers that the structural reforms and the comple-
tion of the Single Market, which are essential to achieving the

11.
stresses that the objectives of the Lisbon Strategy are
only achievable if the measures put in place enable a maximum
level of participation by Europe's citizens in Europe's economy;
and recommends that
the overarching policy principle in
every economic policy should be the promotion of active
citizen participation in the economy and the removal of
barriers which hamper it;

12.
recalls that modernising the European social model by
investing in people and combating social exclusion is at the
heart of implementing the Lisbon Strategy. The Committee of
the Regions is concerned therefore that there is no reference in
the Commission communication to action to combat social
exclusion;

13.
believes that the debate on the future of the social
agenda should be conducted within the context of the debate
for
revitalising the Lisbon Strategy, with national action
focusing on job creation, combating the disproportionate
employment obstacles faced by women, older workers,
the
unskilled, and immigrants. Moreover, in order to achieve more
and better jobs, further progress needs to be made towards the
completion of a truly mobile European labour market;

recommends that environmental concerns be main-

14.
streamed throughout all policies;

reaffirms its conviction that equal attention should be
15.
paid to the three pillars of
the
economic, social and environmental pillars — thereby ensuring
that quality of life remains the central concern;

the Lisbon Strategy,

i.e.

16.
stresses the fundamental role of entrepreneurship and
innovation; calls for less bureaucracy in order to encourage
entrepreneurship, and for information campaigns to support
the image of entrepreneurs, tackle the stigma of failure, and
foster the European entrepreneurial spirit;

17.
considers that the Lisbon Strategy's main weakness lies
in its implementation, in particular by Member States. In order
to remedy the situation, the Lisbon process should be more
targeted, transparent, and democratic. The Committee of the
Regions therefore supports the recommendation (3) to launch a
European-wide information campaign explaining to European
citizens the Lisbon agenda and the impact it has on their daily
lives;

(1) COM(2005) 24(EN), page 10
(2) Point 38 of the conclusions

(3) Report of the High Level Group on the future of social policy in an

enlarged European Union

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should the Council take up the Commission's proposal
18.
to appoint a ‘Ms’ or ‘Mr Lisbon’ at national
level without
creating new administrative structures, the CoR calls upon the
latter to cooperate closely with regional and local authorities;

19.
regrets that the Commission does not foresee compara-
tive evaluation and ranking lists, making the evaluation and
comparability of the reform efforts in the Member States more
difficult. The establishment of ranking lists and the analysis of
existing strengths and weaknesses at national — and if neces-
sary, also regional — level would improve competition and
increase pressure to achieve considerable improvements in the
implementation of reforms;

20. welcomes the Commission's proposal to replace the
existing plethora of annual reports with a single Annual Stra-
tegic Report; calls upon the Member States to include local
and regional authorities in the elaboration of their respective
national plans in order to take into account local and regional
specificities and priorities when implementing the Lisbon
Strategy;

should take better account of the long-term consequences of
the economic cycle and the viability of budgetary situations;
considers that the ‘overall assessment’ mentioned in Article
104(6) TEC should be made more specific, by taking into
account the long-term impact of investments by public authori-
ties in the course of implementing the Lisbon Strategy and
suggests revising the Stability and Growth Pact making it more
flexible and taking account of EU Member States' different
economic realities. This should be done without detriment to
the discipline of the Pact's criteria, and without exempting
certain types of spending from the calculation of budgetary
deficit;

25.
approves of the European Commission's proposal to
increase the amount of financial resources allocated to devel-
oping trans-European networks, whilst specifically prioritising
transnational projects that promote intermodality and the use
of sustainable means of transport since this will help tackle
increasing traffic and trade flows;

regrets the fact that the Commission strategy has not
21.
managed to involve the local and regional authorities, and that
cooperation on this front has remained essentially intergovern-
mental; calls therefore for a Commission proposal to reform
the open method of coordination in such a way as to involve
local and regional authorities. The Committee of the Regions
also calls upon the Commission, in compliance with the spirit
of
the
Committee of the Regions before delivering the opinions fore-
seen under this article;

the White Paper on good governance,

to consult

22.
recalls that in its initiative on Better Lawmaking, the
Commission committed itself to developing an impact analysis
mechanism for legislative proposals not only in socio-economic
and environmental terms but also to append a subsidiarity
impact analysis to each proposal. The Committee of
the
Regions awaits these developments with the utmost interest;

Synchronising the Lisbon Strategy and the Stability and
Growth Pact

The contribution of services of general interest to revita-
lising the Lisbon Strategy

26. welcomes the fact that the Commission has recognised
the concerns, expressed inter alia by the Committee of the
Regions (2), over the application of the country of origin prin-
ciple mentioned in its proposal for a directive on services (3);

regrets that

27.
the Commission does not mention any
specific follow-up for the White Paper on services of general
interest (4);

considers it necessary to focus State aid on horizontal
28.
objectives of Community interest,
including employment,
regional development, the environment, training and research,
in particular by promoting innovative small and medium-sized
enterprises. Instead of pursuing the objective of a quantitative
reduction in State aid, the EU should focus on better state aid
with regard to long-term high-quality delivery of services;

23. maintains that the EU will not achieve the level of
growth, employment and social cohesion that it requires unless
the macro-economic framework in the Member States is also in
step with the Lisbon Strategy, and unless the compatibility of
economic instruments is improved;

24.
shares the objective that, in compliance with the provi-
sions of the EC Treaty (1), the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP)

supports setting up impact analysis mechanisms to
29.
improve the assessment of state aid that has a moderate effect
on competition and trade at EU level but which is nevertheless
liable to address real market failures, contribute to development
in lagging regions and promote the entrepreneurial spirit.
Finally, the Committee of the Regions urges the Commission
to pursue its efforts towards providing local and regional
authorities with greater legal certainty and transparency in
financing and managing services of general interest;

(1) Article 104(6) TEC and the Protocol on the excessive debt proce-

dure

(2) CdR 154/2004 final
(3) COM(2005) 24, p. 17
(4) COM (2005) 24, p. 17

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Towards a European learning area

30.
supports the Commission's call for Innovation Poles at
regional and local levels that will establish a network for inno-
vative small and medium-sized enterprises, universities and
appropriate financial and commercial structures;

endorses the proposal

31.
to launch a knowledge pact
renewing the EU's and the Member States' joint commitment to
developing research, innovation and education. The aim of the
pact is to re-group the various programmes relating to learning
and to draw up a limited set of quantifiable objectives involving
all knowledge policy operators in Europe. The Committee of
the Regions proposes that in future the Member States spend
3 % of their GDP on research and urges all spheres of govern-
ment to introduce measures that encourage students to embark
upon a research career;

stresses the particularly important role of

local and
32.
regional authorities in making the integrated concept of educa-
tion and lifelong learning a reality, aiming at a knowledge
society.
Innovative work ethics as well as learning foreign
languages, which is essential to promoting mobility, are funda-
mental elements of that concept;

33. makes it clear that
tax diversity is an important
element of the Lisbon Strategy and calls on the Member States

Brussels, 24 February 2005

to create competitive tax benefits in order to increase private
sector investment, not least in research;

supports the launch of a European Youth Pact that
34.
focuses on unemployment issues and social and occupational
integration;

35.
calls for the launch of a European programme on
ageing with a view to using the knowledge and expertise of
ageing Europe;

The Lisbon Strategy in a global context

believes that the Lisbon Strategy will not succeed unless
36.
the European Union argues in international fora for globalisa-
tion to be governed by more effective and equitable rules in
terms of competition, social rights, the environment and intel-
lectual property;

believes that

37.
immigration from third countries can
represent an opportunity for injecting more dynamism and
ideas into the European economy, and acknowledges the
Commission's commitment to proposing a better developed
approach to legal migration;

38.
instructs its president to submit this resolution to the
European Commission, the European Parliament, the Council,
and the Luxembourg and United Kingdom presidencies.

The President

of the Committee of the Regions

Peter STRAUB