If European Union leaders had been serious about reviving the economy, they should have taken three decisions at their summit last week. By far the best single measure to raise the EU's potential growth rate would have been the adoption of the services directive to create a single and free market for services within the union.

Second, the leaders could have adopted a narrow focus on growth and employment when they undertook the mid-term review of the Lisbon agenda, a project of microeconomic reforms that has run into the ground.