The Lisbon Strategy in the Wider European Context Regarding employment, according to the Accession Partnership, Croatia has first to concentrate on alignment with the acquis in the areas of labour law, health and safety, gender equality and anti-discrimination, as well as to strengthen administrative and enforcement structures and inter-ministerial coordination, while in the medium-term it has to continue labour market and education reform with a view to increasing labour force participation and employment rates(European Council, 2006, different paragraphs). Finally, one of the important priorities in the Accession Partnership is the need to implement public administration and judiciary reforms, to promote training and to improve human resource management in order to ensure accountability, efficiency, openness, transparency, depoliticisation and a high level of professionalism in the public service. This is one of the basic preconditions for the efficient implementation of the Lisbon Strategy goals. The Open Method of Coordination(OMC), as a tool for implementing the European soft law and Lisbon Strategy in particular, is an instrument relevant for Croatia, as a means of spreading best practice and achieving greater convergence towards the main EU goals. This method involves fixing guidelines combined with specific timetables, benchmarking, sharing best practice, periodic monitoring, evaluation and peer reviews and similar practices. Various types of consultation mechanisms are present in the procedures for developing policies or enacting laws in Croatia. In the procedure for preparing new economic laws, the consultation mechanisms are directed towards economic associations and trade unions, through the Government Economic and Social Committee. Within it, consultations are held with some other partners as well, such as chambers, employers' associations, and external bodies of the Croatian Parliament. However, some are of the opinion that social partners are not included in the consultation procedures to the extent that they should be, particularly when dealing with the social issues which are highly sensitive for citizens. The view expressed by the trade unions at the conference underlined that there was a need for establishing deeper social dialogue in the process of creating integrated policies in Croatia. Investment in economic development needs to be accompanied by relevant social instruments. Employment policy should be integrated together with education, regional development and other relevant policies. Social issues are very much underlined in the Lisbon Agenda and they cannot be underestimated when considering national economic reforms. The view expressed by the trade unions was that the economic reforms carried out in Croatia following the World Bank model do not take into consideration their 25