Labour market reform
In a joint statement in 2003, British Prime Minister Blair and Portuguese Prime Minister Durão Barroso highlighted the role of labour market flexibility in helping to deliver the goals set out in the strategy agreed by EU leaders at the Lisbon European Council of March 2000 - namely, to make the EU “the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustaining economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion” (the Lisbon Strategy). Bilateral exchanges have continued at Ministerial and official level with a view to itendifying areas for joint collaboration on labour market issues.
The UK and Portugal held a joint Ministerial Seminar on Labour Market Flexibility and Adaptability on 20 May 2003 in London, attended by Alan Johnson, then Minister of State for Employment Relations, Industry and the Regions, and Dr Luis Pais Antunes, the then Portuguese Secretary of State for Labour. This event concluded with the signing of a joint declaration on economic reform and labour market principles.
