Brussels, 26/02/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 3 March, the European Commission will be publishing a report on the EUROPE 2020 strategy following lengthy consultation at a seminar on Thursday 25 and Friday 26 February. The aim of the 2020 strategy is to find an EU answer to the economic crisis and prepare to move towards a sustainable economy that meets the challenges of the current decade, namely high public deficits, an ageing population, climate change and globalisation. The Commission will suggest three priorities for EU action - knowledge, jobs and the green economy. It will urge the member states to ensure better coordination of their economies to meet these objectives. The European summit on 25 and 26 March 2010 will endorse the Commission's priorities ahead of approval of the 2020 strategy and member states' national targets at the June 2010 European summit. In December of each year of this decade, the member states will publish their own stability or convergence programmes of reforms at national level (the first will be published in December 2010).
The 2020 strategy will be based on: integrated guidelines that match the EU's policies and targets that are to be implemented by the member states; strengthened programmes for the EU and its member states: each country will publish its structural reform priorities and the Commission will draw up EU programmes to try and meet the targets, using EU funding as an incentive. A draft Commission document talks about funding for research, Structural Funds, EIB loans and the common agricultural policy. Stricter scrutiny of all this will be carried out by special missions in the member states and mechanisms introduced in the Lisbon Treaty (warnings and recommendations, laid down in Article 121).
A draft document notes that the Commission will set a series of targets to be met by 2020, like an increase in EU GDP from 2.9% to 4% of investment in R&D; increasing employment levels among people aged 20 to 64 from 69% to 75%; cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 20% on the 1990 levels (the draft document makes no mention of the 30% target under certain conditions); and reducing the number of Europeans living below the poverty line by 22%. The Commission hopes that by meeting these targets, growth of 2% of GDP will be created, along with some 5.6 billion new jobs by 2020.
The targets are to be set out under three main headings: - smart growth (innovation, youth and the digital society); - green growth (industrial policy and cutting the carbon footprint); and inclusive growth (new jobs agenda and reducing poverty). (L.C./transl.fl)