The essential responsibility for this state of affairs lies with Europe’s ruling class and policymakers. As a recent assessment by former Dutch prime minister Wim Kok pointed out, the EU’s member states generally have not made the Lisbon Strategy a high priority, and they balk at giving the EU the means to pursue more ambitious policies to offset this neglect.
欧洲的统治阶级和决策者要为这种状况负起责任。前荷兰总理柯克斯最近进行的评估显示，总的来讲欧盟各成员国并没有把里斯本战略当作重点，而且也不愿赋予欧盟执行其雄心勃勃的策略，以纠正这种忽视所造成后果的必要的手段。就连领导人都忽视的任务，很难要求民众付出热情。