The Last exit to lisbon

The Lisbon agenda was reborn in 2005 with its economic goals prioritised and a new system of governance. But "naming and shaming" of underperforming countries has been dropped and there will be no redrawing of the EU budget. The new emphasis is on national "ownership" of reforms. Jean Pisani-Ferry and André Sapir call for more focused guidelines, robust assessments of performance and help for Lisbon's goals in the 2008 budget review. This Policy Brief is based on a Paper of the same title presented to the European Union's finance ministers on 14 March 2006 at the request of the Austrian presidency.