IS IT ALREADY TOO LATE TO SAVE LISBON?

With roughly 40% of legislation drawn up in the context of the Lisbon framework still to make it on to national statute books, by the reckoning of some social policy think tanks, one may be forgiven for thinking that the strategy is now doomed. But the European Commission has other ideas.

The EU executive is determined that Lisbon is not a complete failure. It admits that the mid-term targets - 67% employment in 2005 - have already been missed, but is fairly confident that 70% employment can be...