Coming: a "new cycle" of Lisbon

Carols Zorrinho, Portugal’s national coordinator for the Lisbon Process

It was early in 2000, and the economic and political mood was bright. Meeting in Lisbon, with Portugal in the rotating presidency of the European Union, leaders agreed to launch what became known as the Lisbon Agenda. The goal: to make Europe by 2010 “the most competitive, dynamic, knowledge-based economy in the world”.

Well, it hasn’t happened yet – but try, try again. On 1 July, Portugal once again takes the EU helm and, as resolved at an EU summit in March, work is under way for “a new cycle” of the Lisbon Strategy. Carlos Zorrinho, Portuguese national coordinator of the Lisbon Strategy and Technological Plan, spoke with Science|Business Editor Richard L. Hudson about what that means.

So what is the new cycle of Lisbon?

We need to look at the experience of implementing the Lisbon Agenda. The last two years have been successful. Europe has created seven million new jobs, attaining nearly 3 per cent of average economic growth. What we want to do now with the new cycle is to do better what we are doing. To go deeper into what we are doing. To do more quickly what we are doing.

There are some very important issues to consider. First, the social agenda. The debate about flexicurity is quite relevant. For me, flexicurity is not a liberal vision; it is not about firing up more growth, and afterwards providing subsidies to people who lose their jobs. Flexicurity is about increased mobility, more dignity to people, more lifelong learning, more money for qualification and skills, flexibility with mobility and more skills to work in Europe.

The second issue is energy. The Lisbon Agenda also means innovation. The energy issue could be a driver for the new cycle of innovation. We want to connect people to innovation. When we think about innovation, many people think about universities and research labs; but innovation is a different, more successful way of doing things for all Europeans. All Europeans need to change, to achieve a more competitive Europe.

Finally, the third issue is to reflect about governance of the Lisbon Strategy. I think there is a very strong linkage between institutional reforms and the new cycle of the agenda. The EU needs a more efficient institutional model of functioning.

What is the schedule?

We have established a very strong cooperation process with the Slovenian Presidency, which will begin in January 2008, after the Portuguese. As a result, the European Commission will present an interim report [during the Portuguese Presidency], something like a vision paper. The Commission will hear a lot of people. Then, in the last meeting of the year, the European Council will approve a document with guidelines for the new cycle for the Slovenian presidency.

What about the target, adopted in Barcelona in 2002, of boosting average EU R&D spending to 3 per cent of GDP?

It’s a very difficult target. In Portugal, our goal is 1.8 per cent, not 3 per cent. What is also important, besides money, is the quality of this investment – the ability to efficiently create value.

The example of Portugal is very strong. We had four difficult goals and, at the moment, we expect to achieve all of them: to pass from a budget deficit of 6.8 per cent of the GDP to less than 3 per cent, to maintain the rate of employment growth, to increase investment on research and development, and to attain economic growth of more than 2 per cent.

We will grow. If it’s possible in Portugal, it’s possible for Europe.