How far to Lisbon?
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Revisiting Lisbon "The objectives set in the Lisbon strategy were generally good, but their implementation was not successful," the President of the European Commission, Jos' Manuel Barroso, stated in his attempt to explain the need to revise the original strategy, which, having reached the halfway mark, lags far behind expected results. The revised strategy will focus on a smaller number of more readily achievable objectives. There is no longer any mention of the key and most ambitious goal of the original strategy, which set out to make the European Union the most competitive economy in the world by the year 2010. The new action plan proposed by the European Commission contains two main aims: to ensure higher growth and to increase employment. Moreover, there will be a greater focus on investments in science and research. How is Slovenia coping with all these commitments? Same direction, different approach A resolution to be adopted by Slovenia's National Assembly by the end of March, will go some way to ensuring that the implementation of the Lisbon strategy is given the highest priority. The position of the parliament is that there is no need to change the general aims of the original strategy, but rather the approach taken in realizing them. This mirrors the views expressed at the end of February by Janez Potocnik, European Commissioner for Science and Research, during a public debate addressing the future of the Lisbon strategy in Slovenia and the EU. While explaining the gist of the proposed changes, Mr Potocnik said: "We are not changing the objectives - we are only revising the approach we take to achieve them, with a view to preserving the spirit of the Lisbon strategy in the long run." Charting the course According to the Commissioner, it is of crucial importance that the EU member states wholeheartedly adopt the ideas contained within the strategy. Moreover, given the considerable differences among the countries, they should each be allowed to chart their own course and not be dictated to by Brussels. In his opinion, the objectives cannot be reached by only acting at the European, regional or national levels. He emphasised that we have to work at all levels simultaneously and that what has to be done, has to be done today, not tomorrow or the day after. Namely, Europe cannot compete with cheap labour or at the cost of systematic and/or environmental sustainability. This is why increasing knowledge and innovation are among the main goals for future European, and thus, Slovenian development. Research According to Eurostat data, R&D made up 1.53 % of Slovenia's GDP in 2003, which placed it eleventh among the EU members (the EU average being 1.93 %) and first among the new EU members. Additionally, as almost two-thirds of the R&D in Slovenia is spawned by the entrepreneurial sector, it means that the country is the only new member exceeding the EU average of 55.4 %. Since the Lisbon strategy focused on innovation as being the key lever of competitiveness and growth, the issue of R&D is of immense importance. Namely, innovation separates successful companies from those barely struggling to survive. Moreover, innovative companies contribute more to employment growth and are more export-oriented. Obstacles On the one hand, Slovenia's relatively high percentage of investment in R&D can be seen as an advantage, as can the fact that human capital in the research sector currently matches the EU average and, for the time being at least, there is no visible 'brain-drain'. On the other hand, Slovenia lacks the positive synergies that would inevitably develop through closer collaboration between the universities, research institutes and the entrepreneurial sector. Another inhibiting factor is that there is not enough innovation in small to medium-sized enterprises, particularly in comparison with that in the larger companies. Furthermore, the majority of investment in R&D is concentrated in only a small number of sectors; the rest lag a long way behind. Moreover, while the level of R&D investment in the medium-high and medium-low branches of the technology sector has increased in recent years, investment in high technology remains stagnant. First steps As mentioned above, accelerating economic growth and increasing employment are key concepts of the revised Lisbon strategy. The Slovenian government also emphasises the importance of these goals. As Slovenia's Minister of the Economy, Andrej Vizjak, put it: "There can be no welfare state and no environmental strategy without economic growth." The minister supports the amendment of the Lisbon strategy and points out three key tasks that Slovenia has to accomplish in the next five years: to create a stimulating tax environment, to reform the labour market and to increase competitiveness. The first is meant to attract foreign investment and the second aims to increase employment, although this could result in the loss of job security. Recent research conducted in Brussels, which analysed the state of employment in the EU, showed that Slovenia lags behind the intermediate goals of the original Lisbon strategy. The employment of the elderly seems to be especially problematic. Furthermore, it will be extremely difficult to narrow the gap between Slovenia and other, more successful EU countries in this area by 2010. As far as economic growth is concerned, it fell to 2.5 % in 2003. However, Slovenia's GDP per capita, which is 77 % of the EU-25 average, outstrips all the new EU members with the exception of Cyprus. In terms of education, Slovenia is performing substantially better than the EU average. The journey to Lisbon As we can see, there are some advantages and some disadvantages, many challenges and many threats along the way to Lisbon. Arriving there would mean that Slovenia has become a developed and knowledge-based society. The majority of factors contributing to the success of Slovenia's journey depend on the country on the sunny side of the Alps itself. Slovenia has shown that it is ready and willing to implement the revised Lisbon strategy, but it's the results that count. Will it be able to address the numerous developmental challenges properly? The appointment of a Minister for the Lisbon Strategy - the so-called Mr or Mrs Lisbon - does not seem bad idea, provided that it does not just lead to piles of paper and nice words, of course. Nevertheless, some things also depend on the EU as a whole. As Mr Potocnik put it - if the EU is unable to overcome the present situation, where states are too preoccupied with counting who gives and gets what, the equation will become very simple - everybody will get less.