The Lisbon Strategy, Europe 2020 and the Crisis in between

This chapter provides a brief overview of the Lisbon strategy, its political and economic rationale, and its main advancements and limits. It is organised in three parts. The first part summarises the politico-economic reasoning at the basis of the Strategy and the expected improvement of the EU governance. Expectations advanced by policymakers and experts are analysed. The second part of the chapter focuses on the social dimension of the recent economic and financial crisis. This is conceived as the sum of the global challenges the EU is facing and the Lisbon Strategy was supposed to deal with. Finally, the third part summarises “shadows” and “lights” of the Lisbon Strategy. Some open questions on the design of the new Europe 2020 Strategy are proposed. The key findings in assessing the Lisbon project are summarised through seven critical points to deal with in order to understand the potential of the new Europe 2020 Strategy.