The European Commission unveiled plans today to relaunch the EU's drive for economic supremacy, but quietly dropped the 2010 deadline set five years ago for a programme that has been "blown off course".
Mr Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Union's new executive, said it was time to refocus the agenda and deliver results for the 25-nation bloc, whose growth and employment rates have lagged the United States for the past decade.
"Europe must do better. What we are proposing today is to release Europe's tremendous economic potential," he told the European Parliament, a week after announcing his priorities for the next five years, which boiled down to growth and jobs.
He adopted the same two priorities for breathing new life into the "Lisbon Agenda", a bold plan adopted by EU leaders during the height of the dot-com bubble to make Europe the most competitive and dynamic economy by the end of this decade.
"Lisbon has been blown off course by a combination of economic conditions, international uncertainty, slow progress in the member states and a gradual loss of political focus," Mr Barossa said.
The new plan calls on member states to take more responsibility for modernisation-- each appointing a "Mr or Mrs Lisbon" to do the job - and it will bring with it both deadlines and yardsticks to stimulate reform-shy governments.
The Commission wants EU leaders to focus on three priorities: job creation, technological innovation and creating an attractive business environment for investors.
It wants countries to take "ownership" of specific targets for raising the proportion of the population in work, with specific targets for youth and the over-50s. That means reforming welfare systems to create incentives to work rather than depend on generous unemployment benefits, early retirement or disability allowances.
The EU wants to squeeze more value out of the EU's single market by liberalising the market for services as it did in the 1980s and 1990s for goods. "The first responsibility is for member states to apply the rules ... agreed," Mr Barroso said.
Mr Barroso warned there could be "no more foot-dragging in key areas of reform".