Growth and jobs - Working together for Europe's future

In March 2000, European leaders made a commitment to the EU becoming, between now and 2010, "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth accompanied by quantitative and qualitative improvement of employment and of greater social cohesion, in compliance with the environment". The "Lisbon strategy" as it was soon called, is composed of a series of general but interdependent reforms. The idea was that the actions carried out by single Member States would be all the more effective if the other Member States acted together. To this end, urgent action must be taken in five political fields: knowledge-based society; internal market; company environments; labour market; sustainable environment.