Lisbon strategy: two reports name good and bad “pupils”

One week before the EU Spring Summit, two think tanks have presented an assessment of the progress of the Lisbon reforms strategy. Both studies do not hesitate to “name and shame” the good and bad member states.

Two European think tanks have prepared evaluation reports on the progress of reform in the Member States and have come to slightly different conclusions. But both think tanks also dare to do what the Commission has avoided: to pinpoint the “heroes” and “villains” of the Lisbon reforms process.

The Brussels-based think tank Bruegel presented its assessment of the relaunched Lisbon agenda on 14 March. In a policy brief, Jean Pisani-Ferry and André Sapir warn the EU not to miss the “last exit to Lisbon”. They evaluated the National Reform Programmes and the Commission’s evaluation of those programmes. On a scale from 1 to 12, most countries score below 6 when it comes to ownership of the Lisbon agenda. “Ownership” in this context refers to the involvement of national parliaments, social partners and civil society in the criteria of the National Reform Programmes .

In the Bruegel ranking, Estonia has the best “ownership” (11 out of 12), followed by 9 other countries (Austria, Denmark, Poland, Spain and others) with 7 out of 12. The countries, where these stakeholders were least involved, were Belgium (3), Germany (2) and the UK (2).

In their evaluation of the Commission’s report on the National Reform Programmes,  Pisani-Ferry and Sapir criticised the “still too profuse” integrated guidelines and urged the Commission to “simplify and prioritise the Lisbon guidelines”.

In a new Lisbon Scorecard to be presented on 20 March in Brussels,  the London-based think tank Centre for European Reform (CER) is more positive about the progress. “Many underlying trends are positive”, the CER says in its press release. “Slowly, but steadily, the EU is moving forward in most of the areas covered by the Lisbon agenda.”

In the CER ranking of top performers (“heroes) and laggards (“villains”), Denmark is number one, with Sweden and Austria following close behind. The UK, the Netherlands and Finland also get high marks. The Mediterranean countries Italy, Greece and Portugal score poorly, but the report’s number one “villain” is Poland.

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