Austria in the EU - Facts and Figures
By acceding to the European Union on January 1st 1995, Austria has taken an important step towards strengthening its international competitiveness. In the course of the past ten years Austria could secure and enhance its social, economic and ecological position by international standards. In particular, the 2004 enlargement of the European Union had a significant positive effect on the economic performance of Austria.
In the framework of the Lisbon-Agenda the European Commission annually presents a Spring Report (or "Annual Progress Report"), in which it assesses the achieved progress of the EU Member States with respect to the objectives of the Lisbon-Agenda on the basis of economical, social and structural indicators ("Lisbon indicators").
Those structural indicators are enumerated in the annex of the Spring report and are divided into 6 categories: General economic background, employment, innovation and research, economic reform, social cohesion and environment. They serve as instruments for objective evaluation of progress in regard to the Lisbon objectives and allow for precise comparisons between the EU Member States.
On average, Austria regularly ranks among the first countries on the basis of those structural indicators.
