Current Issues in Evaluating Structural Reforms within the Lisbon Process; comments and recommendations about the Lisbon Methodology (LIME) Working Group. Bruegel Policy Contribution/February 2007

In 2005, shortly after taking office, the Barroso Commission replaced the failed Lisbon process initiated in 2000 (Lisbon 1) by a new one (Lisbon 2) which gave centre stage to the National Reform Programmes (NRPs). A year later, in a paper written at the request of the Austrian Presidency, Jean Pisani-Ferry and I critically reviewed the new process and concluded that “the outcome is mixed at best”. In particular, we emphasised that “There is no explicit methodology behind the evaluation of the NRPs by the Commission.

A Comprehensive Approach to the Euro-Area Debt Crisis

The euro area's sovereign debt crisis continues though significant steps have been taken to resolve it. This paper proposes a comprehensive solution to the crisis based on three pillars: a plan to restore banking sector soundness in the whole euro area, a resolution of sovereign debt crisis -including a revision of EU assistance facilities and a reduction of the Greek public debt- and a strategy to foster growth and competitiveness. The paper provides novel estimates and analysis focusing on the current situation of Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain.fiscal sustainability; euro-area crisis; financial interdependence

The EU and the Governance of Globalisation. Bruegel Working Papers, 2006/02, September 2006

Bruegel Scholars Alan Ahearne, Jean Pisani-Ferry, André Sapir and Nicolas Véron contributed this paper to the project Globalisation Challenges for Europe and Finland organised for the secretariat of the Economic Council of Finland. The project is part of Finland's EU presidency programme and its objective is to add momentum to the discussion in the European Union on golbalisation, Europe's competitiveness policy and the Lisbon Strategy

Newly Identified Nematodes from Mono Lake Exhibit Extreme Arsenic Resistance

Extremophiles have much to reveal about the biology of resilience, yet their study is limited by sampling and culturing difficulties [1, 2, 3]. The broad success and small size of nematodes make them advantageous for tackling these problems [4, 5, 6]. We investigated the arsenic-rich, alkaline, and hypersaline Mono Lake (CA, US) [7, 8, 9] for extremophile nematodes. Though Mono Lake has previously been described to contain only two animal species (brine shrimp and alkali flies) in its water and sediments [10], we report the discovery of eight nematode species from the lake, including microbe grazers, parasites, and predators. Thus, nematodes are the dominant animals of Mono Lake in species richness. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that the nematodes originated from multiple colonization events, which is striking, given the young history of extreme conditions at Mono Lake [7, 11]. One species, Auanema sp., is new, culturable, and survives 500 times the human lethal dose of arsenic. Comparisons to two non-extremophile sister species [12] reveal that arsenic resistance is a common feature of the genus and a preadaptive trait that likely allowed Auanema to inhabit Mono Lake. This preadaptation may be partly explained by a variant in the gene dbt-1 shared with some Caenorhabditis elegans natural populations and known to confer arsenic resistance [13]. Our findings expand Mono Lake’s ecosystem from two known animal species to ten, and they provide a new system for studying arsenic resistance. The dominance of nematodes in Mono Lake and other extreme environments and our findings of preadaptation to arsenic raise the intriguing possibility that nematodes are widely pre-adapted to be extremophiles

Moving in the anthropocene: global reductions in terrestrial mammalian movements

Animal movement is fundamental for ecosystem functioning and species survival, yet the effects of the anthropogenic footprint on animal movements have not been estimated across species. Using a unique GPS-tracking database of 803 individuals across 57 species, we found that movements of mammals in areas with a comparatively high human footprint were on average one-half to one-third the extent of their movements in areas with a low human footprint. We attribute this reduction to behavioral changes of individual animals and to the exclusion of species with long-range movements from areas with higher human impact. Global loss of vagility alters a key ecological trait of animals that affects not only population persistence but also ecosystem processes such as predator-prey interactions, nutrient cycling, and disease transmission

Some Ideas for Reforming the Community Anti-Dumping Instrument. Bruegel Policy Contribution/July 2006, Issue 3

In imperfectly competitive markets, profit-maximising firms may charge different prices to different customers, a practice called price discrimination. The most common form of price discrimination in international trade is dumping, a pricing strategy whereby a firm charges a lower price for exported products than it does for the same products when they are sold on the domestic market

Globalization and the Reform of European Social Models. Bruegel policy brief 2005/01, November 2005

Summary. Europe’s labour and social institutions need urgent reform if we are to grasp the opportunities offered by globalisation and avoid the threats. But the notion of a single "European Social Model" is largely unhelpful for thinking about reforms. Of the four main models operating, the “Nordic” and the "Anglo-Saxon" models are both efficient, but only the former manages to combine both equity and efficiency. Critically, the "Continental" and "Mediterranean" models, which together account for two-thirds of the GDP of the entire EU-25 and 90 per cent of the GDP of the 12-member eurozone, are inefficient and unsustainable. These models must therefore be reformed, probably by adopting features of the two more efficient models. These reforms may also involve changes towards more or less equity

Globalisation and the Reform of European Social Models. Bruegel Policy Contribution/September 2005

Notwithstanding considerable other achievements, the EU economic system is increasingly failing to deliver a satisfactory growth performance. As I and my co-authors argued in the 2003 report An Agenda for a Growing Europe, the EU’s growth problem is a symptom of an economy stuck in a system of mass production, large firms, existing technology and long-term employment patterns that is no longer suitable in today’s world characterised by rapid technological change and strong global competition. The report insisted that Europe needs to undertake massive economic and social reforms in order to develop an innovation-based economy, focused on R&D, technology and human capital. It concluded that growth must become Europe’s number one economic priority – not only in the declarations of its leaders but above all in their actions. It also warned that failure to deliver on growth would threaten not only the sustainability of the European model, but also the very process of European integration which is built on the twin foundations of peace and prosperity

Last Exit to Lisbon. Bruegel Policy Brief 2006/02, March 2006

The Lisbon agenda was drawn up and adopted in Spring 2000 to bolster the growth, innovation and employment performance of the European Union while fostering the inclusiveness of its social models. These goals commanded, and still command, a wide consensus. Five years later, in Spring 2005, judging the results as “mixed”, heads of state and government chose to refocus priorities on growth and employment and decided to streamline the Lisbon process. The main features of the new process are a longer programming period, a single set of Integrated Guidelines, and the preparation by member states of National Reform Programmes (NRPs). The essential political choice behind these decisions was twofold. First, the failure of the first Lisbon strategy (Lisbon 1) was attributed neither to its goals nor to its principles, but rather to excessive complexity and inadequate process. Second, the lack of political commitment on the part of member states was regarded as a major shortcoming. Accordingly, the revised Lisbon strategy (Lisbon 2) put the accent on national ownership and adopted a more tailormade, bottom-up approach