Several member states have followed Spain in calling for binding economic targets under the EU’s new ten-year growth plan, dubbed EU2020. While not naming the countries, the European Commission says in a paper, published on 2 February, that many want to see “stronger economic policy coordination and more binding governance arrangements”. EU leaders are to meet for their first informal talks on the new strategy on 11 February at a summit hosted by European Council President Herman Van Rompuy.

The paper, which gives an overview of comments received by the EU executive in response to its 24 November 2009 consultation on EU2020, adds that most member states agree the new plan must be better run than its predecessor, the Lisbon strategy. Member states are also keen to direct the policy themselves. “Few member states plead for a stronger role for the Commission in monitoring delivery of the strategy,” it says. They will most likely ask the European Council to take control, with the help of the different Council formations.

In an accompanying document assessing the impact of the Lisbon strategy, the Commission says that too much work may have been done at ministerial level and little room was left for decision making by heads of state and government. “The European Parliament’s role could also have been defined more clearly so that it could have played a bigger role in driving the strategy forward,” the working paper says.

The Lisbon strategy was launched in 2000 with the aim of achieving an overall 70% employment rate by 2010. It also set a target that 3% of the bloc’s GDP should be spent on research and development by the same deadline. All in all, eight countries achieved the employment target, while only two – Sweden and Finland – spent the required amount on R&D. But since the crisis hit in 2008, employment has dropped, unemployment is up to 10% and rising, while growth has fallen by 4% of GDP on average.

The Commission’s assessment is that more could have been done to make the strategy more understandable to citizens, and eurozone countries could have more closely looked at each other’s progress in bodies, such as the Eurogroup.

‘QUICK WINS’

The European Round Table of Industrialists – representing the bloc’s biggest companies, including Volvo, BP and Telefonica – has waded into the 2020 debate, calling for a swift conclusion of talks and an immediate decision on how the strategy should look. Top of the list of ‘quick wins’ for the group is to reach a legally binding climate agreement following UN talks in Copenhagen last December. They also call for tax breaks to promote investment in research, public and private money to finance an EU body to promote science and maths in schools and continuous screening for all new legislation to make sure it does not constrain businesses.

Most importantly, short-term goals must be defined first and implemented by 2015, during the term of office of the new Commission.

The report is available at www.europolitics.info > Search > 265626