VERA – Forward Visions on the European Research Area

VERA is funded by the European Union's FP7 programme for research,
technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 290705

Europe 2020

Code: A02

Primary project information

Lead: European Commission
Additional project partners: Each EU institution has a part to play in making sure the EU is moving in the right direction to hit the Europe 2020 targets. The success of the Europe 2020 strategy crucially depends on the ability of EU Member States to play their part in: (1) implementing the necessary reforms at national level to boost growth – for example to increase research investment and employment levels as well as cooperating with the Commission on the seven flagship initiatives. (2) The success of the Europe 2020 strategy depends on the involvement of all sections of society.
Type of activity: Europe 2020 is the EU's growth strategy for the coming decade. Concretely, the Union has set five ambitious objectives - on employment, innovation, education, social inclusion and climate/energy - to be reached by 2020. Each Member State has adopted its own national targets in each of these areas. Concrete actions at EU and national levels underpin the strategy.
Date conducted: 2010
Date of Publication: 03.03.2010
Duration: N/A
Summary: The Commission is proposing five measurable EU targets for 2020 that will steer the process and be translated into national targets: for employment; for research and innovation; for climate change and energy; for education; and for combating poverty. Europe 2020 puts forward three mutually reinforcing priorities: (1) Smart growth: developing an economy based on knowledge and innovation. (2) Sustainable growth: promoting a more resource efficient, greener and more competitive economy. (3) Inclusive growth: fostering a high-employment economy delivering social and territorial cohesion. [5]
Financed by: EU Commission
Budget: N/A
Research area/market/industry/sector: overarching
Main report (full title): COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION EUROPE 2020 A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth - COM (2010) 2020 final

GRAND CHALLENGES

Economic Challenges: Improve framework conditions and access to finance for research and innovation so as to ensure that innovative ideas can be turned into products and services that create growth and jobs (<-> flagship initiative "Innovation Union"). [12]
Economic Challenges Shortlist: Improve framework conditions and access to finance for research and innovation
Geopolitical Challenges: Improve the business environment, notably for SMEs, and to support the development of a strong and sustainable industrial base able to compete globally (<-> flagship initiative "An industrial policy for the globalisation era") [16].
Geopolitical Challenges Shortlist: Improve business environment for SMEs to suport strong, sustainable, and golbally competitive industrial base
Societal Challenges: Ensure social and territorial cohesion such that the benefits of growth and jobs are widely shared and people experiencing poverty and social exclusion are enabled to live in dignity and take an active part in society globally (<-> flagship initiative "European platform against poverty") [19].
Societal Challenges Shortlist: Ensure social and territorial cohesion; Ensure that all members of society live in dignitiy and take an active part in society
Technical Challenges: Speed up the roll-out of high-speed internet and reap the benefits of a digital single market for households and firms (<-> flagship initiative "A digital agenda for Europe") [14].
Technical Challenges Shortlist: Speed up roll-out of high-speed internet; Reap benefits of digital single market for households and firms
Mobility Challenges: Enhance the performance of education systems and to facilitate the entry of young people to the labour market (<-> flagship initiative "Youth on the move") [13]
Mobility Challenges Shortlist: Enhance performance of education systems; Facilitate entry of young people to the labour market
Cross-cutting Challenges: In Europe 2020 targets are interrelated. For instance, investing in cleaner, low carbon technologies will help our environment, contribute to fighting climate change and create new business and employment opportunities [11].
Cross-cutting Challenges Shortlist: Investe in cleaner, low carbon technologies to help environment, fight climate change, and create new business and employment opportunities
Other Challenges: Modernise labour markets and empower people by developing their of skills throughout the lifecycle with a view to increase labour participation and better match labour supply and demand, including through labour mobility (<-> flagship initiative "An agenda for new skills and jobs") [18].
Other Challenges Shortlist: Modernisation of labour markets; Empowerment of people through lifelong development of their skills; Increase labour participation and improve matching labour supply with demand

Summary of relevant aspects

Connecting fields: As an immediate priority, the Commission charts what needs to be done to define a credible exit strategy, to pursue the reform of the financial system, to ensure budgetary consolidation for long-term growth, and to strengthen coordination within the Economic and Monetary Union [6, 24ff].
Aspects of ERA Governance: Chapter 5 [27] focuses on "stronger governance" – quite general, without distinguishing between “ERA” versus “RTI” governance. En example can be found under the Flagship Initiative “An industrial policy for the globalization era”: To develop a horizontal approach to industrial policy combining different policy instruments (e.g. “smart” regulation, modernised public procurement, competition rules and standard setting) [16].
Aspects of RTI Governance: Chapter 5 [27] focuses on "stronger governance" – quite general, without distinguishing between “ERA” versus “RTI” governance.
Other Aspects of Governance: General: Stronger economic governance will be required to deliver results. In a global world, no single country can effectively address the challenges by acting alone. The European Council will have full ownership and be the focal point of the new strategy. The Commission will monitor progress towards the targets, facilitate policy exchange and make the necessary proposals to steer action and advance the EU flagship initiatives. The European Parliament will be a driving force to mobilise citizens and act as co-legislator on key initiatives. This partnership approach should extend to EU committees, to national parliaments and national, local and regional authorities, to social partners and to stakeholders and civil society so that everyone is involved in delivering on the vision [27ff].
Surprising Issues: The thematic approach reflects the EU dimension, shows clearly the interdependence of Member States economies, and allows greater selectivity on concrete initiatives which push the strategy forward and help achieve the EU and national headline targets.
Background information: The targets of "Europe 2020" are representative of the three priorities of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth but they are not exhaustive: a wide range of actions at national, EU and international levels will be necessary to underpin them. The Commission is putting forward seven flagship initiatives to catalyse progress under each priority theme.

Scenarios

Scenario 1: Scenario 1: Sustainable recovery: Europe is able to make a full return to earlier growth path and raise its potential to go beyond [9].
Scenario 2: Scenario 2: Sluggish recovery: Europe will have suffered a permanent loss in wealth and start growing again from this eroded basis [9].
Scenario 3: Scenario 3: Lost decade: Europe will have suffered a permanent loss in wealth and potential for future growth [9].
Actions/solutions implied: (1) Raise the employment rate of the population aged 20-64 from the current 69% to at least 75%. (2) Achieve the target of investing 3% of GDP in R&D in particular by improving the conditions for R&D investment by the private sector, and develop a new indicator to track innovation. (3) Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20% compared to 1990 levels or by 30% if the conditions are right, increase the share of renewable energy in our final energy consumption to 20%, and achieve a 20% increase in energy efficiency. (4) Reduce the share of early school leavers to 10% from the current 15% and increase the share of the population aged 30-34 having completed tertiary education from 31% to at least 40%. (59 Reduce the number of Europeans living below national poverty lines by 25%, lifting 20 million people out of poverty [32].
Who benefits from the actions taken?: The financial/ economic and societal system in Europe.

Meta information

Time horizon: 2010-2012
Methods: consultation, stakeholder debate, scenario analysis
Target Group: The success of Europe’s new strategy will depend critically on the European Union’s institutions, Member States and regions (= target group) explaining clearly why reforms are necessary – and inevitable to maintain our quality of life and secure our social models -, where Europe and its Member States want to be by 2020, and what contribution they are looking for from citizens, businesses and their representative organisations.
Objectives: Overall institutional structure: Integrated guidelines establishing scope of EU policy priorities, including headline targets for the EU to reach by 2020 and to be translated into national targets.
Countries covered: EU
ERA actors/stakeholders mentioned: member states, regions, civil society
Geographic scope:

Entry Details

Rapporteur: Claudia Steindl
Rapporteur's organization: AIT
Entry Date: May 2012