Fabio Colasanti, director general Information Society, European Commission, has identified Europe’s engagement with technology as key to establishing the regional bloc as the most competitive in the world. But does Europe have the means to take advantage of technology, or will it let the opportunities slip by?
The foundation of Colasanti’s concern was the report on European competitiveness by Wim Kok of the Netherlands highlighting the European Union’s slower-than-expected progress towards the goals agreed by the member states in Lisbon in 2000, particularly in terms of regulatory reform as well as development of the internal market across the EU. The European Commission has identified higher economic growth as a basic pre-condition for any of the economic or social advances encapsulated in the so-called Lisbon Agenda. The problem is that the EU today lags behind its international competitors in terms of growth potential.
Lisbon has become the central mantra of the European Commission. In Commission-speak, it’s not about a certain southern European city. It’s more a state of mind. Every document put out by the Commission now references the Lisbon agenda and discusses what it will take to achieve its goals.
In one sense, such centrality of purpose within the Commission is commendable. It is something that private sector organisations pay vast amounts of consultancy dollars to achieve.
But in another sense, Lisbon is simply a mantra – useful to be wheeled out when it is important to show how joined-up the elements of Europe’s government are, but without a strategic plan or programme to actually join the dots together.
