EU to grade govts on reforms

European Union governments may soon be singled out for specific failures to implement the planned economic reforms that were designed to help Europe overtake the mighty US economy, EU diplomats said late on Friday. EU leaders will be asked to appoint a high-level group of experts at a summit on March 25-26 to review each country’s record in carrying out the so-called Lisbon agenda of structural reforms. In 2000, EU leaders pledged to make Europe the world’s most competitive economy in ten years through a mix of more research and development investment, broader use of new technologies and effective pension and labour reforms — the Lisbon agenda. But experts say the scant progress made so far would embarrass several EU governments if they were to be officially measured against each other at an official level. "EU leaders are expected to invite the Commission to establish a high-level group to carry out a review of the Lisbon process and to draft a report measuring member states’ performance," an EU diplomat told Reuters. The group will hand over a report to the Commission, the EU’s executive, by November 1, 2004 in time for the mid-term review of the whole reforms process due in 2005.