ON THE AGENDA

摘要

THESE DAYS, IT'S EASY TO DE-spair for Europe, and many economists do. Growth forecasts for the euro zone are down, unemployment is climbing and, while 18 percent of young people cannot find work, political leaders in Germany, France and Italy have gone slow on labor market reforms. The European Union is well behind on a five-year-old plan, the Lisbon Agenda, to create the world's most competitive economy by 2010. Expectations are low as leaders of the EU's 25 member states gather at a Brussels summit this week to discuss ways to real-ize the Agenda goals. Yet, despite the pessimistic majority, there is an underdog case to be made that change is in the air.