Resolution of the Committee of the Regions to be submitted to the European Spring Council 2008 on The Strategy for Growth and Jobs — Handling the Lisbon paradox
Date: 2008-02-07
Institutions: European Committee of the Regions
Subjects: administrative cooperation, economic growth, employment policy, governance, regional cooperation, regional development

25.4.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 105/31

Resolution of the Committee of the Regions to be submitted to the European Spring Council 2008
on ‘The Strategy for Growth and Jobs — Handling the “Lisbon paradox”’

(2008/C 105/07)

Whereas the 2006 Spring European Council asked the Committee of the Regions to deliver a summary
report in support of the Partnership for Growth and Jobs for its 2008 Summit, to assess the effects of the
revised Lisbon Strategy on the local and regional level, and to provide an outlook beyond 2008.

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

1. welcomes this request as Europe's Regions and Cities play
a major part in the delivery of the Lisbon Strategy. In fact, they
are the key actors in the area of innovation, research and educa-
tion policies; they deliver more than 66 % of all public invest-
ment in the EU; they are increasingly focusing the Structural
Funds expenditure on growth and jobs goals;

2.
recalls that the EU Reform Treaty adopted in Lisbon adds
territorial cohesion as a third objective of the European Union,
alongside social and economic cohesion as a consequence,
addressing territorial disparities that affect the overall competi-
tiveness of the EU's economy becomes a priority, making the
role of Regions and Cities more crucial than ever;

3. welcomes the European Commission's Strategic Report
reforms across Europe, which includes an
on economic
assessment of
the Member State's progresses with related
country-specific draft recommendations, a proposal for substan-
tial confirmation of the integrated guidelines and for a new
Community Lisbon Programme 2008-2010. This Strategic
Report basically shows that the Lisbon Strategy has proven its
worth by creating an overall objective for more growth and jobs
in Europe. Refers in this context to the establishment of several
cooperation associations between regions whose activities are
also geared to the objectives set out in the Lisbon Strategy; these
include,
for example, the Innovation Alliance, a cooperation
association of approximately 20 European regions who are
already successful in the area of innovation and a number of
whom already fulfil the Lisbon criteria;

however, stresses that not all

4.
the Member States are
implementing reform programmes at the necessary pace, and
that much more has still
to be done to push ahead with
reforms;

considers that the Lisbon Strategy can only be success-
6.
fully delivered if local and regional authorities are fully involved
in the decision-making,
implementation and monitoring
processes, and reiterates its commitment to contribute to the
realisation of the Strategy for Growth and Jobs on the ground;

7.
firmly believes that there needs to be a European strategy
to foster Europe's competitiveness also beyond 2010, setting an
EU-wide coordinated and inclusive policy of economic reforms
for growth and jobs and for better addressing the global chal-
lenges which all
levels of governance in Europe increasingly
face;

8.
offers its support to the European Commission to orga-
nise a European-wide awareness campaign to bring attention
and backing for this strategy now and into the future;

The ‘Lisbon Paradox’ and the Ownership of the Lisbon
Agenda

1. welcomes that one of the key changes of the revised
Lisbon Strategy adopted in 2005 is the concept of ‘going local’,
aimed at stressing the role of the local and regional levels;

observes that, while Europe's

2.
regions and cities are
engaging in virtually all the growth and jobs objectives of the
Lisbon strategy, a majority of them feel that the contribution of
this Strategy towards the achievement of these objectives is of
low importance;

regrets this ‘Lisbon Paradox’ and recalls that increased
3.
ownership of the growth and jobs agenda, as requested in the
2005 revision of the Lisbon Strategy, can be achieved only if
the different levels of government (the EU, national, regional
and local) work together to meet the task;

5. welcomes the decision of the 2006 European Council to
engage the CoR in delivering the Partnership for Growth and
Jobs through the provision of a report on the effects of the
revised Lisbon agenda on the local and regional levels, and asks
the Spring European Council to mandate the CoR to regularly
report on the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy and its
follow-up on the local and regional levels;

therefore calls

4.
for greater cooperation between the
different government levels according to the subsidiarity prin-
ciple allowing for more coherent, coordinated and effective
policymaking and increasing the ‘added value’ of having an
EU-wide jobs and growth strategy;

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Official Journal of the European Union

25.4.2008

Implementation gap — Regions and cities in the govern-
ance cycle

recalls that

5.
local and regional authorities are highly
committed to the Lisbon objectives, and that many see a poten-
tial to step up their role in the implementation process; notes a
prevailing dissatisfaction with their involvement in the imple-
mentation, which shows that, in spite of some improvements,
an implementation gap persists which has to be tackled in the
next governance cycle;

recommends that the Commission's annual monitoring
6.
and country specific recommendations should include informa-
tion on the involvement of all stakeholders in a systematic way;

7.
reiterates its calls that Member States involve more
systematically local and regional authorities at all the stages of
the Lisbon policy cycle,
in accordance with their respective
constitutional provisions;

asks to be invited to the Lisbon Methodology Working

8.
Group of the Economic Policy Committee;

9.
recommends that Eurostat be charged to deliver all rele-
vant statistical data at Regional level which would enable the
compiling and publication of a structural monitoring report on
achieving the Lisbon strategy targets;

ground through the enhanced decentralisation of management
and the greater role for the partners’. Regrets however, that the
Commission limits itself to ‘working closely with the Member
States using the systems and procedures that have been put in
place for monitoring, evaluation and the adjustment of
the
programmes
priorities’.
Encourages the Commission to give due recognition to the key
role that regions and cities could play in this context;

circumstances

changing

and

to

levels of policy-making in order

13.
therefore asks for mechanisms for better coordination
to
between the different
develop an effective strategy involving all authorities aiming to
reach the Lisbon goals at
level. The
in cooperation with national and
Committee of the Regions,
European associations of
is
local and regional authorities,
willing to give its contribution for such a coordinated and parti-
cipative approach;

regional and local

highlights

created by

14.
the
the new opportunities
European Groupings for Territorial Cooperation (EGTC), which
allows national, regional and local authorities to develop a
stronger territorial cooperation, for a better, coherent and more
effective implementation of the Lisbon objectives in a given
area, by developing concrete projects in cross border regions
and implementing projects under transnational and interregional
cooperation;

The Cohesion Policy Makes an important contribution to
the strategy for growth and
the implementation of
employment

15.
given the legal basis on territorial cohesion of the new
Lisbon Treaty, it calls on the EU to make concrete provisions
and implement appropriate actions which will meet the specific
needs of the outermost, island, mountain and coastal regions;

10.
sees in the European Cohesion Policy as one important
instrument for enabling the regions and cities in Europe reach
the objectives of
the Strategy for growth and jobs on the
ground. The cohesion policy is the most important accompa-
nying policy in the regions, which are lagging behind for
strengthening competitiveness and employment;

11.
observes that the earmarking requirement in the new
Cohesion policy programming period 2007-2013 introduced
relevant and major changes in spending plans for regions and
cities, mainly leading to an increase in innovation expenditure.
Furthermore considers and welcomes that earmarking contri-
butes to the alignment of the Lisbon and Gothenburg Strategies
with the key mission of the Cohesion Policy and expects that
the Commission provides proposals after the evaluation of the
experience made in the current programming period, on how
the cohesion policy can contribute to the Lisbon strategy in the
future;

16.
furthermore believes that the forthcoming EU Budget
Review will help increase awareness that for specific territorial
needs, challenges and opportunities of Europe's regions and
cities can only be achieved by a strengthened EU Cohesion
Policy beyond 2013;

recalls the need to further enable and facilitate a
17.
horizontal coordination between Structural Funds and other
relevant European funding programmes, such as the: Competi-
the 7th Research
tiveness & Innovation Programme (CIP),
Framework
Lifelong-Learning
the
Programmes (LLL), to maximise the added value of European
funding towards the achievement of the Lisbon goals;

Programme

(FP7)

and

shares the European Commission point of view (1) that
12.
the new ‘Cohesion policy 2007-2013 has created the basis for a
more strategic approach to investment planning based on the
Lisbon strategy and for greater ownership of the strategy on the

(1) Communication ‘Member States and Regions delivering the Lisbon
Strategy for growth and jobs though EU Cohesion policy, 2007-2013’
of 11 November 2007, p. 11-12, Conclusions.

18.
stresses that economic dynamism in the highly competi-
tive 21st century must be at all levels — EU, Member States,
and regions/localities — so as to build a stable, prosperous
society for all of Europe's territories. Recognises that local and
regional authorities can facilitate the conditions that encourage
enterprise growth within their areas. Believes that the future of
Europe's territories cannot be shaped only on the basis of
purely competitive dynamics;

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Official Journal of the European Union

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Future priorities in local and regional development policies

19.
urges the EU and its Member States to take into account
the priorities of regions and cities in their respective develop-
ment programmes;

20.
believes that the Lisbon Programme is an important
lever to raise the awareness for the growth and jobs agenda

Brussels, 7 February 2008.

and the added value it brings to national, regional and local
policy-making;

instructs its president to submit this resolution to the
the EU and to the 2008 Spring
the European

21.
Slovenian Presidency of
European Council,
Parliament and the European Economic and Social Committee.

the European Commission,

President

of the Committee of the Regions

Luc VAN DEN BRANDE