Mixed reactions to Kok report among European stakeholders

European employers' association UNICE agrees with the basic findings of the Kok report, saying that the current situation of the EU's competitiveness was unsatisfactory. Moreover, it supports the report's calls on member states to draw up national action plans and to make governments accountable for their implementation. However, UNICE said the report lacked specific suggestions about to how to breathe fresh life into the Lisbon strategy. "The report does not include clear recommendations for what governments should do to make Europe more competitive," complains the organisation.

Eurochambres,  the association of European chambers of commerce and industry, has welcomed the report, saying that it addressed the key points such as lack of national ownership, the shortcomings of the open method of co-ordination and the need to better communicate the Lisbon strategy to the citizens. However, Eurochambres criticises that the report is not clear on how economic, social and environmental welfare are linked. "Currently, the strategy is imbalanced towards the social and environmental pillars. We must rebalance and make the economy the top priority for the years to come," it said.

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) points to several shortcomings in the Kok report, criticising that it focused merely on two aspects of the Lisbon strategy, namely employment and growth. In ETUC's view, equal weight should be given to social cohesion and sustainable development. "Lisbon is about strengthening social cohesion and sustainability [...]. Lisbon is definitely not about scaring European workers and citizens with a narrow agenda of pure deregulation and cutbacks in their living and social standards being decided over their heads," said John Monks, Secretary General of ETUC.

The EPP group in the European Parliament blames national governments for their inability to push through the Lisbon aims. "An improvement of the framework for business often fails due to national egoisms," said MEP Alexander Radwan. "It is no wonder that the EU is unable to improve its competitiveness." For the EPP, the report of the Kok expert group can be seen as a "declaration of bankruptcy".

The Socialists  in the EP underlined the need to maintain the balance of the Lisbon agenda and warned about the risk of using it to undermine social priorities. "The Kok report's lack of precision [...] creates a risk that it will be misinterpreted and misused to undermine the EU's broad economic, social and environmental agenda," said the groups leaders in a statement. "This is regrettable since the report itself ringingly endorses that agenda."