Does the Lisbon Strategy Matter: the Czech Experience take part in the Lisbon Strategy negotiations only after the 2002 Barcelona Summit, when the preparation of the new member states to enter the EU- until then organised within the logic of the Copenhagen criteria- had just been completed. Fully fledged participation in the Lisbon Strategy started only with the country's accession to the EU in May 2004. Thus, social policy moved to the top of the EU political agenda of enlargement as late as one decade after setting up the Copenhagen criteria of accession. Thus the Lisbon Strategy, developed under the auspices of the old member states, had no relevance to the accession process as such. Nevertheless, between 2002 and 2004 it became an inspiration for the creation of national political programmes. A new coalition government under Prime Minister Vladimír Špidla, leader of the Czech Social Democratic Party, came to power in July 2002. The coalition agreement and the new government's declaration comprised all the Lisbon Strategy goals. The Office of the Government's Department for European Integration 2 , which had existed since 1998, was re-named the Department for EU Issues, in May 2003 3 . Along with the Inter-ministerial Commission for the Implementation of the Lisbon Strategy Goals 4 it supervises its implementation in the Czech Republic. The original Lisbon Strategy was amended by its environmental dimension at the Gothenburg Summit in 2001. It conceptualised sustainable development as consisting of three pillars: economic, social and environmental. A Strategy of Sustainable Development was approved by the Czech government in 2004 (Strategie udržitelného rozvoje, 2004). The New European Commission redefined the Lisbon Strategy by prioritising economic growth, education, research and development, and fighting unemployment in 2005. In the meantime, Vladimír Špidla resigned as Prime Minister. His successor, Stanislav Gross, installed a new deputy prime minister for the economy, Martin Jahn. One of his tasks was to prepare a Strategy of Economic Growth(Strategie hospodářského růstu, 2005) and a National Lisbon Programme 2005-2008 5 (Office of the Government of the Czech Republic, 2005). Both documents were approved by the government in 2005 and submitted to the European Commission. Typically, the Czech National Lisbon Programme 2005-2008 consists of three parts: macroeconomic(notably continuing public finances reform), microeconomic(measures to strengthen and increase competitiveness) 2. Odbor pro evropskou integraci. 3. Odbor pro záležitosti EU. 4. Meziresortní komise Úřadu vlády ČR pro naplňování cílů Lisabonské strategie. 5. Národní Lisabonský program 2005-2008. 137