Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Question 15: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the steps being taken to reinvigorate the Lisbon Agenda in Ireland and across the European Union; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33299/05]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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Under the Irish Presidency of the EU in 2004, an EU-wide mid-term review of progress under the Lisbon Agenda was initiated. The outcome of this review was considered by the European Council at its meeting in March 2005. The European Council acknowledged that, five years after the launch of the Lisbon Agenda, the results were mixed. In this context, the European Council agreed to relaunch the Lisbon Agenda as a partnership for growth and employment.

The Council also decided to promote action in two key complementary areas — social cohesion, with a focus on the major challenges we face in fighting poverty and disadvantage, and sustainable development. In the latter context, the European Council in June 2005 also adopted a set of guiding principles in order to help promote the integration of sustainable development into EU actions. Under this relaunched Lisbon Agenda, each member state is required to prepare, on its own responsibility, a three year national reform programme geared to its own specific needs and situation.

Following consultation with the social partners and consideration by both Houses of the Oireachtas, the Government sent Ireland's national reform programme to the European Commission on 28 October 2005. Our national reform programme draws heavily from the programme for Government and the social partnership agreement, Sustaining Progress. It identifies the various priorities, policies and actions being pursued by us in order to deliver on the Lisbon Agenda.

Overall, Ireland is performing well on many of the key Lisbon indicators. Our main goal for the next three years is to sustain and build on the progress of recent years. For its part, the European Commission will focus in on measures to be taken at the EU level to reinforce the programmes being undertaken by member states.

The Government strongly supports the relaunched Lisbon Agenda. We believe in particular that reform programmes in the member states, coupled with common action through the EU institutions, are essential to equip the European Union to face up to the competitive challenges of globalisation, including the rise of China, India and other emerging economies.