Annual Report 2004

The Eurosystem Secures Price Stability
Little progress in
research and innovation
systems; Austrian
R&D indicators near
EU-15 average
Improving
implementation
ice and the railroad sector, albeit to
different degrees in different countries.
In its tenth Progress Report
on the Financial Services Action Plan,
the European Commission observes
that nearly all legislative measures
had been completed on schedule.
The successful implementation of
the Financial Services Action Plan is
attributed to a good extent to the
Lamfalussy procedure. According to
this procedure, EU bodies to which
representatives of national regulatory
and supervisory authorities (and central
banks) are appointed are involved
in the legislative process and in the
consistent transposition of Community
law in the Member States. This reduces
the burden on the European
Commission. Moreover, the classification
of legislation into basic legislation
requiring a political decision and
detailed provisions to be passed at the
technical level provides for speedy
decision making. Full integration of
the internal market for services will
have to be preceded by a thorough
debate about the services directive
of the European Commission, as
the draft still requires fundamental
changes according to the European
Council of March 22 and 23, 2005.
EuropeÕs research, innovation and
education systems appear to have a
long way to go toward becoming
competitive. The discussion surrounding
the single European patent
is typical of the failure to push
through reforms. The EUÕs R&D ratio
merely edged up from 1.93% in
2000 to 1.99% in 2002 (Austria:
2.27% in 2004). The Kok and Sapir 5
reports both urge the authorities to
implement research promotion and
university reforms.
To speed up implementation, the
Kok report recommends a greater
emphasis on the national level via
Òpartnerships for reformÓ and national
action programs subject to debate
within national parliaments. The
report proposes that the EU budget
be reshaped to reflect the Lisbon priorities
of R&D and education expenditure,
that communication be improved
and that a European Research
Council be created. The strategy is to
be focused on fewer targets overall.
European Commission President Jose«
Manuel Barroso has already called for
a relaunch of the Lisbon strategy as a
Òpartnership for growth and employment.Ó
Implementation may be improving
for a number of reasons. In the
past, efforts have typically been redoubled
when a deadline drew near.
Furthermore, the European Commission
and the Member State governments
should invest more political
energy in the Lisbon process from
2005 to 2010. Economic stagnation
has prompted many member countries
to begin to tackle reforms. If
the Lisbon agenda is to be transposed
into a Ònational growth strategyÓ or a
partnership for reform and brought
to the attention of EuropeÕs citizens
5 Sapir, A., P. Aghion, G. Bertola, M. Hellwig, J. Pisani-Ferry, D. Rosati, J. Vin÷als und H. Wallace. 2003. An
Agenda for a Growing Europe: Making the EU Economic System Deliver. Brussels.
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Annual Report 2004