28th REPORT: A EUROPEAN STRATEGY FOR JOBS
AND GROWTH
Letter from John Healey MP, Financial
Secretary, HM Treasury to the Chairman
On 16 March 2006, the House of Lords' European
Union Committee published a Report entitled, "A European
Strategy for Jobs and Growth; Report with Evidence" (28th
Report of Session 2005-06, HL Paper 137). The Report represented
the results of the Committee's inquiry into the Lisbon Agenda;
it discussed and made recommendations in a range of areas, including
actions at the European and national levels.
I would like to draw your attention to my letters
of 29 May 2006 to you as Chairman of the House of Lords European
Union Select Committee, copied to the Chairman and clerks of the
House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee. While these letters
were mainly concerned with replies to supplementary enquiries
on two Explanatory Memoranda related to the Lisbon Strategy, I
also explicitly touched upon some of the recommendations made
in the said 28th Report. In particular, I set out our views on
the Lisbon National Reform Programmes (NRPs), the Open Method
of Coordination, peer review and the issue of a Ministerial-level
Lisbon coordinator.
Since these letters were written, in relation
to the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy, the Government published
in October 2006 an update on progress against its NRP, which,
along with the updates from other Member States, was the subject
of multilateral surveillance and Conclusions by the ECOFIN Council.
In addition, the Commission's December 2006 Annual Progress Report
(APR) contained assessments of all Member States programmes, as
well as a recommendation to the Council under the EC Treaty for
country-specific recommendations for economic and employment policies.
I submitted an Explanatory Memorandum on the Commission's APR
on 24 January 2007 and the European Council on 8-9 March 2007
endorsed the country-specific recommendations submitted by the
Council ahead of their formal adoption later this year.
20 March 2007
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