BRUSSELS (AFP) - Business chiefs urge the EU to renew reform efforts and do more to slash red tape, in response to a report which paints a gloomy picture of Europe's hopes of becoming a world-beating economic power.
The Union of Industrial and Employers' Confederations of Europe (UNICE) said the report, to be presented to an European Union (EU) summit this week by former Dutch prime minister Wim Kok, confirmed the scale of the problem.
"The structural environment in Europe is still in dire need of reform," said UNICE chief Juergen Strube in a letter to Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, who currently holds the EU presidency.
EU leaders, meeting in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, are due to take stock at the halfway mark of the bloc's so-called Lisbon agenda, launched in 2000 and aimed to make the EU the world's most dynamic economy by 2010.
But the Kok report, a copy of which was obstained by AFP, notably warns that "too many targets promise to be seriously missed."
"Halfway to 2010, the overall picture is very mixed and much needs to be done to prevent Lisbon from becoming a synonym for missed objectives and failed promises," it laments.
The report notably calls on the EU's executive Commission in Brussels to issue quarterly report cards on members' performances and "name and blame" the laggards.
UNICE says regulation is continuing to stifle small and medium enterprises in Europe, which are a key engine of jobs creation and economic growth.
"Concrete action plans to simplify existing red tape must be put in place with ambitious and quantitative targets, deadlines and controls," said Strube in his letter.
It also called for the EU's internal market to be deepened by further liberalizing markets, by speeding up work on major transport networks and by eliminating obstacles to cross-border services "as a matter of urgency."
Other key UNICE demands include:
- to boost research and development, in a way which actually creates jobs. "At present ... conditions do not sufficiently support private investment in research and the transformation of research into marketable products."
- to avoid threatening job creation with over-restrictive labour rules. "The European social policy agenda's priority should be the creation of new jobs."
Critics of the Lisbon Agenda claim that it tries to achieve too much, by setting ambitious targets for everything from environmental protection to working time rules.
Overall UNICE warns that a failure to bolster job creation will jeapordize the other aims of the Lisbon strategy.
"If we do not succeed in refocussing all our policies on more growth and jobs and therefore on more competitiveness, Europe will not be able to sustain its social and environmental ambitions," it said.
Kok, in presenting the report to the European Commission on Wednesday ahead of the EU summit, had hoped to meet with incoming commission head Jose Manuel Barroso, who has pledged to make EU competitiveness a top priority.
The Barroso commission was to have taken over on Monday. But Barroso withdrew all his nominees last week under the threat of a no-confidence vote by the European Parliament, which must ratify the new commission.

11/02/2004 - 17:29 GMT - AFP