When the EU member countries got together in 2000 to sign the Lisbon Agenda, the intrinsic goal was to put the ‘E’ back into Economic and Monetary Union (EMU).
The Lisbon Agreement, to create “a modern and information-based economy” by 2010 – with the tools in place by 2008, was simply a way of formalising the political will to achieve this objective. Integrating the payment infrastructures of Europe and harmonising standards are not goals in themselves but steps towards creating an economic zone in which business can be done cheaply and efficiently.
