Competitiveness – 2015, vision and tasks

Improving competitiveness is regarded also by the European Union as a pivotal issue. The Council of Europe, the highest political decision-making body of the European Union, reached a resolution in its Lisbon Strategy in 2000 to develop Europe into the most competitive and most dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world in ten years, an economy that ensures substantial growth by providing her citizens with more and better jobs and a stronger social cohesion (EC, 2000). This objective has proven to be unrealistic and unattainable. Two years later the European Union clarified the concept (EC, 2002), then the strategy was renewed (EC, 2005) after the interim assessment (the Kok Report, 2004). The strategy of the European Union now focuses on economic growth, the bolstering of employment, and the expansion of knowledge-based (innovationdriven) competitive economy.