Brussels, 21/01/2010 (Agence Europe) - France's objective for the future EU strategy for growth and employment is to learn from the successes and failures of the Lisbon Agenda so that clear priorities and goals may be set out. Although results of the previous exercise are only partially satisfactory, the crisis accentuates further the challenges facing the European economy with a view to finding new sources of growth to the service of better social cohesion. These challenges, which must be met by 2020, include strong and practical Community initiatives and coordinated economic guidance within the eurozone and the internal market. The European Council has the role of meeting these challenges as it is the cornerstone of governance for the new strategy and the guarantor of political ownership of economic reforms, as it is underlined in the French contribution to the debate on the future EU strategy.
The European section of this strategy should be strengthened to ensure greater consistency between Community policies that should effectively contribute to the objectives defined, as a complement to reforms carried out by member states. On this point, services of general interest or low-carbon vehicles are emblematic examples of what should be achieved, France believes, also calling for a real European industrial policy.
Green growth, a more integrated energy policy, research and innovation (with simplification of research planning procedures, financing in favour of projects closer to the market, etc), the development of a digital agenda, greater training and education efforts, are all part of this - as is the consolidation of the internal market (accompanied by coordinated tax, social and industrial policies), or review of rules relating to state aid (in particular to focus control on those that are the most harmful for the European economy and competitiveness).
At the external level, the EU 2020 strategy should also allow the EU to confirm its status as a global player and defend its own interests more on the international stage (when faced by the large emerging countries in particular, on subjects such as trade policy, exchange policy, the protection of intellectual property rights, and the promotion of European standards).
The funding of future growth will benefit from better regulation of the financial markets and the mobilisation of other instruments available to the EU, especially the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Investment Fund (EIF).
Social cohesion must be a priority, with a dynamic and inclusive jobs policy which marries mobility with security, and efforts to combat poverty and exclusion (the European Social Fund should be put to greater use).
Mechanisms used for monitoring and examining national and Community performance must also be enhanced. The Community's Lisbon programme must become a truly concrete and coordinated programme for the policies of the Commission's different directorates-general. Integrated guidelines could, moreover, fix a limited number of common European objectives (employment rate and quality of jobs, R&D, sustainability of public finance, poverty reduction, etc). A more precise and reasoned assessment by the Commission is desirable for specific recommendations on a country by country basis, and its new authority to provide direct warning could prove useful within the framework of the economic and monetary union, as for implementation of the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines (BEPG). (A.B./transl.jl)