The Lisbon Agenda and Europe 2020: From the Governance of Coordination to the Coordination of Governance

Abstract

In 2010, the European Union launched a new ten-year programme of initiatives as a successor to its earlier 'Lisbon agenda'. This essay compares and contrasts the new 'Europe 2020' agenda with its predecessor. It explores the comparative capabilities of integration projects like the Lisbon and Europe 2020 agendas to promote 'Europeanization'. In interpreting Europeanization as including the capacity for such integration projects to sustain the integration process, three points of comparison are drawn out. The first is the relationship between integration projects and treaty reform. The second is the institutional forces instigating and shaping integration projects. The third is the substantive scope of these projects and the balance of policy goals pursued by them. The essay also analyses Europeanization as 'institution-building' by comparing the governance architectures of both agendas. In seeking to strengthen the governance architecture, there has been an evident shift from the governance of coordination under the Lisbon agenda to a coordination of governance under Europe 2020. However, the economic crisis threatens to overshadow the new Europe 2020 agenda in a way that may threaten a broader legitimacy crisis for the Union.