Pasirengimas Europos Sąjungos strategijai „ES 2020“: Lietuvos patirtis

Abstract

The Lisbon Strategy, launched in 2000 set a strategic objective to make the European Union (EU) “the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion”.81 The Lisbon Strategy is one of the most important EU strategies addressing economic growth and jobs. Two key quantitative targets established by the Lisbon Strategy in 2000 and to be attained by 2010 are first, to achieve that 3% of the gross domestic product (GDP) should be invested in research and development (R&D) and second, to ensure that employment rate reaches 70%. EU-27 employment rate stood at 65.9% and R&D expenditure reached 1.9% of GDP in 2008.82 The objectives are unlikely to be reached by 2010, however, according to the European Commission83, the Lisbon Strategy has made a positive impact on the job creation in the EU and on the EU economy overall. From 2000, when the Lisbon strategy was launched until 2010, the EU has increased from 15 Member States to 27 Member States. The Lisbon Strategy will come to its end when the impact of the global financial and economic crisis is still felt in Europe and other parts of the world. In 2010, the Lisbon Strategy should be replaced by the new EU strategy “EU 2020”.