It can be and it should be followed by others. The framework through which the Lisbon agenda is implemented relies largely on a peer pressure mechanism, mainly depending on goodwill of governments in individual EU countries. The pressure must be reinforced, including by clearly identifying and publicising successful and lagging country cases.
I have generally referred to average data for the twelve countries of the euro zone but we must not ignore that a country like Finland (and more generally the Nordic countries in the EU) has booked in the most recent decade performances in the field of growth and employment rates which are absolutely comparable to those of the US and are much better than those of countries like, for instance, Germany and Italy.