In addition, structural polices are needed to ensure that countries can flexibly react to asymmetric shocks, as the single monetary regime makes adjustments to asymmetric shocks a painful and drawn-out process. In 2000 the European Council adopted the Lisbon Agenda. In broad terms, the Lisbon strategy aims to “make Europe, by 2010, the most competitive and the most dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world”.
This is based on our latest experience, when we were treated as an outsider in the second wave of the EU, OECD and NATO enlargement, with a long lasting effect on FDI inflows, costs of debt service and the overall macroeconomic development.