At the start of a series on the European Union's search for ways to lift economic growth rates and create more jobs, the FT assesses the prospects for progress as the targets are honed down.

Five years ago, the European Union's leaders suffered their own collective version of irrational exuberance. In Lisbon, at what was dubbed "the dotcom summit", they issued a ringing pledge to turn stodgy old Europe into "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world" by 2010.