Abstract: |
At the beginning of the new millennium the European Union set a tradition of preparing ten-year complex economic strategies. The first of them, called the Lisbon Strategy, has been in force until 2010. This paper summarizes existing knowledge about its formation, structure and gradual development. Special attention is given to its main shortcomings, as it is generally agreed that the Lisbon Strategy turned out to be quite unsuccessful. Whereas some of the drawbacks were addressed during the preparation of the second European Union economic strategy, called the Europe 2020, there is still space for further improvements at the occasion of its current midterm review in 2015. The paper identifies as its biggest problems too low awareness and ownership of the strategy. These has to be significantly increased if the Europe 2020 targets are to be met. |