The Reform of the Lisbon Strategy’s Governance Framework - is ‘New Governance’ the Way Forward?

Abstract

The Lisbon Strategy was launched in 2000 with a view to achieving the ten-year goal for the Union to ‘become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion’ (European Council, 2000: par.5). This ambition was justified by the enthusiasm at the time for the booming high-tech market and a good EU economic performance. The resulting strategy was a wide-ranging programme combining policies in different domains (economic, social and environmental), to be adopted and implemented at different governance levels (European, national, regional) through a variety of policy tools (legislation, policy coordination, budgetary credits) (European Central Bank, 2005a). In breadth, scope and method the strategy does not compare to any programme of action launched by the EU in the past, like the single market project or the Maastricht process, which had a clearer focus and ‘harder’ tools at their disposal.