The results of the "Lisbon agenda" - the attempt to make Europe the world's most successful knowledge-based economy are generally thought to have been disappointing. What steps should be taken by the European Union, and by national governments - publié le 20/04/2007

Abstract

In March 2000, the Lisbon Strategy was launched to overcome a series of weaknesses in the European economy: long-term structural unemployment, a poor employment rate, and under-development of the service sector. In an often-quoted sentence, it has therefore assigned the EU "a new strategic goal for the next decade: to become the most competitive and most dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth, with more and better and greater social cohesion?. The mid-term results published five years after the launch reveal that the focus on knowledge is right but that the sense of urgency is lacking, leaving Europe lagging behind the objectives set and behind the benchmark model of the Unites States.