Lisbon Agenda (Hansard, 8 September 2004)

§ Keith Vaz
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the mid-term review of the Lisbon agenda in 2005. [186623]

§ Mr. MacShane
The Government set out their vision for a more focused, results-oriented Lisbon process in a paper submitted to Wim Kok, Chairman of the Lisbon Mid-Term Review Group chair and EU partners in June. The Government are pressing for:

greater focus on economic prosperity as a key to social cohesion;

increased accountability of national governments in delivering reform;

better use of Community rules and instruments to deliver reform, including use of non-regulatory approaches, highlighting the role of the state aids rules and showing how Community spending can better be aligned with the Lisbon agenda; and

key reforms needed to meet Lisbon targets, including reducing the regulatory burden on business, strengthening the Single Market, improving employment flexibility and opening up EU markets to the benefits of global trade.

Copies of the Government's submission to the Lisbon Mid-Term Review will be made available in the Library of the House and can be accessed at: http://www.hmtreasury.gov.uk/media/9A9DB/Mid-term_review_of_the_Lisbon_strategy062004.pdf)

§ Keith Vaz
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what measures he will take in order to achieve the targets of the Lisbon Agenda. [186651]

§ Mr. MacShane
The Government set out their priorities for European economic reform in their progress report in February. Copes are available in the Library of the House. Priorities are to:1274W

promote effective EU regulation—reduce the burden on EU business and ensure that any new legislation encourages not stifles economic growth;

strengthen the Single Market, with a more pro-active competition policy, further reform of the state aid rules, and by making the Single Market a reality for services as well as goods;

to improve the functioning of Europe's labour markets to deliver more and better jobs, including through implementation of Mr. Wim Kok's Employment Taskforce recommendations;

promote enterprise and innovation, including through new European Centres of Enterprise—local centres of excellence in enterprise policy;

promote a successful conclusion to the Doha Trade round; and

strengthen the transatlantic economic relationship, by tackling the barriers to trade and investment between the EU and the US.

The Government continue to work closely with their partners to promote action on all of these priorities, including through the mid-term review of the Lisbon strategy, chaired by Mr. Wim Kok. We submitted our vision for a more focused, results-oriented Lisbon process to the Mid-Term Review Group in June (copies will be made available in the Library of the House and can be accessed at: http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/media/9A9DB/Mid-term_review_of_the_Lisbon_strategy062004.pdf)