Although that process was repeatedly interrupted owing to a diversity of economic and political difficulties, it comes to the credit of Europe's political leaders that they were able to appreciate those difficulties correctly and to respond to them with a visionary and forward-looking project, sometimes in the face of strong opposition.
In this respect, the speeding-up of structural policy measures which aim to increase productivity is of the utmost importance. For this purpose, the 2002 Broad Economic Policy Guidelines should set the conditions for stepping up the pace of economic reform.