Here, some progress has been made in the reduction of excessive business regulations, for instance by reducing the time and costs required to set up a business. All in all, progress has been made to promote long-term productivity growth and to increase labour utilisation, but the extent differs widely across countries and policy areas.
Although the structural reforms have been moving in the right direction, they have not been far reaching enough. In fact, we need to step up considerably the implementation of the necessary reforms in order to achieve the Lisbon goals.