ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how the crisis and the crisis strategy have together increased inequality within the Eurozone both at the country level and between the north and the south of Europe. All that is left of the original Lisbon strategy is a neoliberal consensus on 'structural reform'. In the Lisbon Strategy, the references to a knowledge-based economy played an important role in signalling a new era where competitiveness requires investments in education and in research. While the Lisbon Strategy, and especially the focus on social cohesion and a knowledge-based society, was generally pointing in the right direction, those in charge of implementing the policy saw 'social cohesion' more as a burden for Europe rather than as the necessary foundation for the learning economy. In several respects, the Lisbon Strategy may be seen as a follow-up, as well as a broadening and revitalisation, of the European Employment Strategy (EES) that was established in 1996.
