EU Lisbon strategy review draws mixed reactions

The publication on Wednesday of Wim Kok's mid-term review of the EU's Lisbon strategy has sparked mixed reactions over its treatment of environmental issues. The report calls for a refocusing of the EU's project to become the most competitive world economy by 2010, while maintaining social cohesion and environmental protection "in the core" of the process (EED 25/10/04).

European Socialist party leader Poul Nyrup Rasmussen said in a letter to the Financial Times newspaper before the report's official release that it had sacrificed jobs and the environment "on the alter of economic performance". Following its recommendations would be a "dangerous precedent and an ill-judged stride down the wrong path", he wrote.