Current Issues in Evaluating Structural Reforms within the Lisbon Process; comments and recommendations about the Lisbon Methodology (LIME) Working Group. Bruegel Policy Contribution/February 2007

Sapir, Andre. (2007) Current Issues in Evaluating Structural Reforms within the Lisbon Process; comments and recommendations about the Lisbon Methodology (LIME) Working Group. Bruegel Policy Contribution/February 2007.

Abstract

In 2005, shortly after taking office, the Barroso Commission replaced the failed Lisbon process initiated in 2000 (Lisbon 1) by a new one (Lisbon 2) which gave centre stage to the National Reform Programmes (NRPs). A year later, in a paper written at the request of the Austrian Presidency, Jean Pisani-Ferry and I critically reviewed the new process and concluded that “the outcome is mixed at best”. In particular, we emphasised that “There is no explicit methodology behind the evaluation of the NRPs by the Commission.”