National Lisbon reform plans to be submitted by 15 October
The Commission has taken the next practical step in the implementation of the updated Lisbon agenda by calling on Member States to publish national reform programmes by no later than 15 October. The request is made in a Commission staff working paper, designed to provide guidance to Member States on the structure and content of their reform programmes. According to the document, national reform programmes should be 'forward-looking political documents setting out a comprehensive three year strategy to implement the integrated guidelines to deliver growth and jobs'. Totalling around 30 to 40 pages, national programmes should begin with an introduction that sets the broad political and socio-economic context for each country, and identifies the key priorities for action, based on analysis of the Commission's integrated guidelines, published on 12 April. Where no actions are proposed in response to particular guidelines, Member States are expected to justify why. The introductory section should also serve to explain the role of the national reform programme in the overall domestic context, and outline the roles and responsibilities of the main stakeholders, in particular public authorities and social partners at all levels. 'The core of the national reform programme would set out the policy responses to the key priorities identified in the introductory part on the basis of the integrated guidelines,' the staff working paper continues. As set out in the Commission's guidelines, these policy responses will fall under three main headings: macroeconomic priorities, microeconomic priorities and employment priorities. Each policy response should include a brief presentation of the challenge that it seeks to address, an outline of the policy initiatives and concrete measures taken or planned in response, and a description of the budgetary resources made available to implement them. Finally, Member States are also asked to include a section on the use of the Structural and Cohesion Funds in support of the Lisbon objectives. Once published, the Commission will then begin the task of assessing the national reform programmes with the aim of adopting its first Annual Progress Report in January 2006. On the basis of this assessment, the Commission says that it may propose updates to the integrated guidelines, as well as make country-specific recommendations for further actions. Commission Vice President Günter Verheugen concluded: 'The delivery of national reform programmes is a crucial step to create more growth and jobs. As a next step, Member States must identify which areas present the more pressing challenges for their economies and explain what actions they intend to take over the next three years to address them.'