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The Lisbon Strategy and Strategy-Focused Public Administration
Mr Seppo Määttä, Seconded National Expert (EIPA) s.maatta@eipa-nl.com
Summary
The Lisbon strategy aims at making Europe the most competitive and dynami c knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion. In Spring 2005, the midpoint of the decade, the Heads of Governments will have an in-depth review of delivery towards the ambitious targets of the strategy. The forthcoming debate of the future actions on the Lisbon strategy provides a real momentum to raise up the question of the role the public administration and the public management should play in the context of the Lisbon strategy.
1. The emphasis of the Lisbon strategy is on the implementation: Strengthening and aligning the Governance layers and mechanism
In order to clarify the political ownership there is a need to strengthen the commitment of the Member States. It is up to the governments to integrate the Lisbon objectives to the national ones, to debate the priorities and to create effective mechanisms for national strategy delivery.
Further discussions and reform efforts for strengthening and aligning the governance layers and mechanisms in strategy delivery could be significantly contributed by the expertise of the public management development.
2. Public administration as a key lever for strategy delivery: Putting the public management practices and innovations into the context of the Lisbon
The rationale for putting the public administration to the context of the Lisbon strategy lies mainly on a) its absolute and relative size, b) its role as a policy-maker and regulator and, c) its role as a core service provider.
Public administration is the largest single industry in Europe and the member states. Facing the challenges within the public sector on productivity, ageing and sustainable finances, the public administration in large should be explicitly a key target in the Lisbon strategy.
The implementation of the Lisbon strategy in its various policy areas is highly depended on the public administration’s capacity and competence to orchestrate the policy-making in real-life context. Hence there is a need at least for exchanging information on good and innovative practices on policy-making. Furthermore a more systematic benchmarking/-learning process on policy-making practices would provide some real added-value for the Lisbon implementation.
The attention towards innovative and well-functioning service delivery solutions and management practices on the area of core public services (education, healthcare, social protection) has been rather limited. It is worth discussing what kind of contributions the public management development has to offer on the field of the public service delivery on different layers.
3. European Public Administration Network (EPAN) at the service of the Lisbon Strategy: Aligning the EPAN network by the challenges of the Lisbon strategy
The ministers responsible for the public administration could ask the EPAN network (Director Generals and working groups) to elaborate the ideas, concrete themes and innovative practices for bringing the public administration to the centre of the Lisbon strategy. The Lisbon strategy and the public administration should be also included to the forthcoming mid-term program. The ministers would get the first report on the progress in the informal ministerial meeting in June 2005.
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