While the focus of public discussion in Europe in recent years has been financial stability, recent attention has shifted to economic growth and competitiveness as a key way out of the crisis. These goals are a central part of the EU's overarching 'Lisbon Strategy'; a policy blue-print to be achieved by 2020.Little attention, however, has been paid to the role of law and Courts in achieving the strategy's goals. This project will address this deficit examining the role of the EU Courts in relation to the Lisbon strategy in 3 key policy fields: health, education and employment.The project will conduct case studies in each field, interviewing judicial and non judicial actors in order to examine both the existing role of EU law in implementing the strategy and the potential interaction between law and the Lisbon Strategy in the future. It will create recommendations on how the interaction between Courts and policy-makers should be structured, drawing on the results of a stakeholder workshop and disseminated through a final report. The report's recommendations and output will be designed to feed into the the Lisbon Strategy's mid-term review in 2015. The applicant will use good existing links to policy-makers and researchers through the host organization - the Hertie School of Governance - to disseminate the research results.Finally, the project can make a lasting impact on the researcher's career integration. As a non-tenured Professor, the research opportunities provided by the grant can give the applicant the opportunity to become better established in an academic system not normally open to international researchers. The project and researcher will furthermore benefit from the inter-disciplinary environment provided by the host, the Hertie School of Governance.