France seeks more ambitious EU globalisation strategy

The EU’s growth and jobs strategy needs to be supplemented by a global arm if Europe wants to remain competitive in the future, argues a new report for the French government , which could become official policy when the country assumes the EU Presidency on 1 July.

Although the Lisbon Strategy is delivering initial results, the EU needs to “quicken the pace” and “adopt a global viewpoint” or it will be “out of the race by 2020”, argued Laurent Cohen-Tanugi, the author of the report, in an interview with EURACTIV France before the official presentation of the report to the government on 15 April. 

Admitting that the Lisbon Strategy has been “visionary” in giving Europe a “head start over the rest of the world,” the author criticises its failure to achieve the intrinsic goal of reducing the competitiveness gap with the US. 

Now Europe even risks being overtaken in certain sectors by major emerging countries such as China, India or Brazil if it chooses to maintain the current status quo, argues Cohen-Tanugi. 

“Europe is once again behind in a world that is developing at unprecedented speed,” he says, resulting from its failure to implement the promised reforms.

A new ‘Lisbon Plus’?

The report calls for the Lisbon Strategy to be renamed “Lisbon Plus” and integrated into a broader “EuroWorld 2015 Strategy” which would produce a “more comprehensive strategy” than the Lisbon Agenda. 

While “Lisbon Plus” would become the EU’s internal component of this “strategic vision”, the second pillar would rely on common external policies, such as trade, agriculture or the internal market, to help shape globalisation, according to the report. 

“The importance given to external policies is intended to signal the start of a new phase in the history of European unification in which Europe is no longer centred on itself but on its relationship with the rest of the world,” the author claims, highlighting a “genuine paradigm shift”. 

“Competitiveness through innovation” 

The focus of Lisbon Plus should be on “competitiveness through innovation,” the report suggests, linking the different economic, social and environmental dimensions. Moreover, the author expresses his hope that the French Presidency (to begin on 1 July) will stimulate the so-called “knowledge triangle” (higher education, research and innovation), enhancing the value of Europe’s human capital and promoting a new “green economy”. 

“The real global challenge with which Europe is confronted is to stay in the race, in terms of prosperity and international influence, in a world that is destined to be dominated by an America/Asia duopoly,” says Cohen-Tanugi. 

“It is now up to the French EU Presidency to start carrying through this new strategic vision,” the report concludes. 

To read a full transcript of the interview with Cohen-Tanugi, please click here.

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