2000 - Set out of the Lisbon Strategy

The aim of the Lisbon Strategy, launched in March 2000 by the EU heads of state and government, was to make Europe "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".

In 2000, the strategy was based on economic and social pillars. One year later, at the European Summit in Gothenburg, a third pillar has been added: the environmental dimension. The underlying idea was that only a common action could lead to success, but several competences were actually at national level, not the European one. The Lisbon Strategy then adopted the Open Method Coordination to provide a common framework for coordinating actions to be taken at the Member states level. A ten year period (2000-2010) was set to reach the main target, with yearly monitoring to be carried out by the Spring European Council.

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In 2004, when a mid-term evaluation of the Lisbon Strategy was started, the outcome of the strategy proved deceiving. A task force chaired by former Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok was then appointed by the Council to work out proposal on how to relaunch the strategy. This process led to a revised Lisbon Strategy which was agreed at the Spring Council on 25-26 March 2005.

The 2005 revised Lisbon Strategy- European Council set Integrated guidelines and specific areas for priority actions

The renewed Lisbon strategy focused on growth and jobs and a three-year cycle was set out for more focused and effective action. Integrated Guidelines were set by the Spring European Council in 2005, providing guidance at the microeconomic, macroeconomic and employment level. Within those guidelines, the 2006 Spring European Council agreed on the following areas for priority action:

1. Investing more in knowledge and innovation

2. Unlocking business potential, especially for SMEs

3. Increasing employment opportunities for priority categories

4. Climate change and energy policy for Europe

Upon request of the 2006 Spring European Council, the Committee of the Region has submitted to the 2008 Spring European Council a report showing a gap between the actual involvement of the EU regions and cities in many of the key Lisbon policy domains and their involvement in the implementation of the National Reform Programs (blueprints for implementing the Strategy at the national level).

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The contribution of cohesion policy to the Lisbon objectives

The various Cohesion Policy instruments - primarily the Structural Funds – were called to contribute, directly or indirectly, to the Lisbon Strategy. This was already the case during the 2000-2006 programming period, but a specific alignment with the Lisbon objectives, through the "earmarking" procedure was explicitly requested for the 2007-2013 programmes.

Through the Earmarking procedure, which has been called “Lisbon earmarking”, European Commission requests that each Member State should aim, over the course of the 2007-2013 programming period, to increase the average share of funds devoted to competitiveness at least to 60 per cent in convergence regions, and 75 per cent in the regions which fall under our “Regional Competitiveness and Employment” objective.

The Lisbon Strategy as part of the EU answer to the financial and economic crisis

In December 2008 the European Council adopted the European Economic Recovery Plan. While taking urgent expenditure measures to face the economic crisis, the EERP reaffirmed that implementation of Lisbon reforms is vital to overcome the crisis stemming socially and environmentally sustainable growth.

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