The European Commission has pressed EU states to speed up economic reform efforts, as it gave them mixed scorecards in a relaunched drive to boost the continent's economic recovery.
The commission declined to set out a league table for reform, but made it clear that shortfalls remain in the so-called Lisbon Strategy, a reform drive originally launched in 2000 at the height of the dotcom bubble. It was aimed at making the EU the world's most competitive economy by 2010.
But by last year many of Europe's national economies remained mired in sluggish growth and high unemployment, and the new commission led by president Jose Manuel Barroso relaunched Lisbon, narrowing the focus in an all-out drive to bolster growth and jobs.
The results, set out in detailed reports on each EU state, highlight issues such as France's need for 'a permanent correction for its public deficit' or Britain's need 'to boost R and D and improve transport infrastructure'.
But Barroso refused to start comparing countries against each other. 'Some countries are moving faster than others. What we don't want to do is to establish some kind of Champions League,' he said.
But he singled out three countries for praise: Ireland, Finland and Luxembourg, while pointing out that they represented the three basic types of economic model in Europe: the Anglo-Saxon; the Nordic and the continental.
The commission report said Ireland programme of reform 'identies and responds to most of the main challenges', but said the important issue of pensions coverage was 'not fully addressed'
