Glossary the laggards. At the end of the current three-year governance cycle requirements for the NRPs will be renewed. Open Method of Coordination(OMC) The Open Method of Coordination(OMC) is a relatively new and intergovernmental method of governance in the European Union, based on the voluntary cooperation of its member states. The OMC was first applied in EU employment policy, as defined in the Amsterdam Treaty of 1997, although it was not called by this name at the time. It was officially named, defined and endorsed in 2000 at the Lisbon Council as an instrument of the Lisbon Strategy in the realm of social policy. The OMC takes place in areas which fall within the competence of the member states and it is based on their voluntary cooperation. It rests on soft law mechanisms such as guidelines, indicators, benchmarking, sharing of best practice and peer review and it takes place in areas such as employment, social protection, social inclusion, education, youth and training. The OMC provides a new framework for cooperation between the member states, whose national policies can thus be directed towards certain common objectives. Generally, the OMC works in stages. First, the Council agrees on policy goals. Member states then translate guidelines into national and regional policies. Thirdly, specific benchmarks and indicators to measure best practice are agreed upon. Finally, results are monitored and evaluated by the Commission. Under this intergovernmental method, the member states are evaluated by one another(peer pressure), with the Commission's role being limited to surveillance. The European Parliament and the Court of Justice play virtually no part in the OMC process. In the context of the Lisbon Strategy, the OMC requires member states to draw up National Action Plans(NAPs) for employment(after the mid-term review the National Reform Programmes NRPs) and to forward them to the Commission. Revised Lisbon Strategy/mid-term review The revised Lisbon Strategy also known as the mid-term review refers to the revision of the original Lisbon Strategy that was agreed at the spring Council in 2005. The revision closely followed the conclusions of the Kok Report which suggested how to give new impetus to the Lisbon Process. It did not change the original intentions of the Lisbon Strategy but it decided that the future orientation of the strategy should be focused on growth and jobs. This revised strategy is no longer based on all the targets set in 2000, and only the figure of 3% of GDP for research and development is being retained. The Commission 181