COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS Results of the public consultation on the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth
Date: 2015-03-02
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU growth strategy, EU investment, Structural Funds, economic disparity, employment statistics, fight against unemployment, marginalisation, poverty, public consultation, sustainable development













EUR-Lex - 52015DC0100 - EN











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52015DC0100

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS Results of the public consultation on the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth /* COM/2015/0100 final */









Introduction
The Europe 2020
strategy was launched in 2010 as the EU's integrated long-term strategy for
jobs and growth. To achieve its objective of smart, sustainable and inclusive
growth for Europe, the strategy relies on five headline targets on employment,
research and development, climate and energy, education, and the fight against
poverty and social exclusion, translated by each Member State into national
targets. The strategy is implemented and monitored as part of the European
Semester. In addition, it has served as an overarching framework for a range of
policies at EU and national level. In particular, the strategy has served as a guide for the design and programming of the
European Structural and Investment Funds over 2014-2020.
After the first
years of implementation of the strategy, halfway to its 2020 horizon the
Commission launched a public consultation to take stock of the delivery on the
strategy's objectives so far. The fact that the first years of the Europe 2020
strategy co-incided with a severe financial and economic crisis had a
significant impact on progress towards the goals of the strategy. It has also
meant that short-term policy considerations often inevitably prevailed over
longer-term approaches. Findings from the latest Eurobarometer survey on the
Europe 2020 strategy[1]
indicate that the overall direction taken by the EU in response to the crisis
is supported by EU citizens – nearly twice as many
respondents consider that the EU is going in the right direction to exit the
crisis and face its challenges as those who do not. 
This Communication sets out the main findings of the public
consultation organised between May and October 2014 to gather the views of
stakeholders on the design and the results of the Europe 2020 strategy. It is
accompanied by an up-to-date report on the state of play regarding the Europe
2020 targets.[2]

Executive
summary 
The public
consultation on the Europe 2020 strategy was held between 5 May 2014 and 31
October 2014. The aim was to collect experience from stakeholders to draw the
lessons from the first years of implementation of the strategy and to feed into
the review.
In total
755 contributions were received from 29 countries. Social partners, interest
groups and non-governmental organisations are the most represented category of
respondents, followed by Member States' governments and public authorities,
individual citizens, think tanks, academia and foundations, and companies. 
The main outcomes from the public consultation
are the following:
-  Europe 2020 is seen as a relevant overarching
framework to promote jobs and growth at EU and national level. Its objectives
and priorities are meaningful in the light of current and future challenges.
-  The five headline targets represent key
catalysts for jobs and growth and help to keep the strategy focused.
-  Most of the flagship initiatives have served
their purpose, yet their visibility has remained weak. 
-  There is scope and a need to improve the
delivery of the strategy through enhanced ownership and involvement on the
ground. 
1. Context of the public consultation
on the Europe 2020 strategy
In March 2014, the European Commission
published a Communication "Taking stock of the Europe 2020 strategy for
smart, sustainable and inclusive growth"[3] aimed at assessing
where the EU and its Member States stand in the implementation of the strategy
four years after its launch, and to pave the ground for the review of the
strategy.
Halfway to the 2020 deadline, the
delivery of the jobs and growth objectives is mixed, notably due to the impact
of the crisis. The legacy of the crisis is still
particularly acute, in particular on labour markets with unemployment remaining
very high at EU level and situations varying significantly across Member
States. Among the main sources of concern, youth unemployment rates remain
elevated in several Member States and long-term unemployment has been
increasing. On the social front, the crisis has led to increased exposure to
poverty and social exclusion and rising inequalities. The
situation is particularly difficult in certain Member States where there have
been increases in severe material deprivation and in the share of jobless
households. At the height of the crisis, the need to get public spending under
control limited expenditure in research and development in a number of Member
States. Now that the focus is gradually shifting from the emergencies of the
crisis to building solid foundations for jobs and
growth, it is important for Member States to prioritise growth-enhancing expenditure
such as investment in research and development. A number of long-term trends
also continue to affect growth, for example demographic developments,
globalisation and competition from international partners, the challenge of
productivity and digitalisation as well as pressure on resources and
environmental concerns.
The crisis has also affected progress
towards the Europe 2020 headline targets. The
crisis has had a clear negative impact on employment and levels of poverty and
has constrained progress towards some of the other targets, with the exception
of its effect on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Despite the crisis
there have been more positive structural trends, for instance in education
levels, building a more sustainable energy mix and the reduction in the carbon
intensity of the economy. As a consequence, globally, the EU is on course to
meet or closely approach its targets on education, climate and energy. This is
not the case regarding employment, research and development and poverty
reduction where the impact of the crisis has been most acutely felt. In all
areas, efforts need to be sustained to consolidate progress and make further
advances.
The Europe 2020 targets are political
commitments[4]. The political nature of the targets is inherent in the strategy
and reflects the primary role that national governments should play in the
strategy, in line with the principle of subsidiarity. However,
for most of the areas, national targets are not sufficiently ambitious to
cumulatively reach the EU-level ambition. For instance, if all the Member
States reached their individual national targets, the aggregated investment in
research and development at EU level would amount to 2.6% of GDP by 2020, which
is below the 3% target set by the EU. These varying degrees of commitment are
also reflected in the variable degree of policy
response and ambition across the EU.
Part of the mixed progress on the Europe
2020 targets can also be attributed to the time lag with which structural
reforms produce their full impact on the economies.
Although the pace and quality of structural reforms have varied from one Member
State to another, most Member States have embarked on important structural
reforms in their labour markets, to make them more resilient in the future, in
product and services markets to improve their functioning and foster an
efficient allocation of resources, and in public administrations to enhance
their efficiency. Yet, these reforms take time to bear fruit and become
visible, which makes their swift and thorough implementation crucial.
Growing divergences across and often
within Member States have hampered progress
towards the Europe 2020 targets. The crisis has led
to a growing gap between the best and least well
performing Member States, instead of the desired convergence of our economies.
There has also been a widening gap between regions inside and across Member
States. As an example, in 2013, the gap between the highest and the lowest
performance as regards the employment rate of the population aged 20-64 was
26.9 percentage points, with employment rates varying from 52.9% in Greece to
79.8% in Sweden. This can be compared to the situation in 2000, where 22.7
percentage points separated the lowest from the highest performance, with
employment rates going from 55.3% in Bulgaria to 78.0% in Denmark.
 EU-LEVEL EUROPE 2020 TARGETS || LATEST DATA 
 Increasing the employment rate of the population aged 20-64 to at least 75% || 68.4% (2013) 
 Increasing investment in R&D to 3% of GDP || 2.02% (2013) 
 Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20% compared to 1990 levels || 17.9% reduction (2012) 
 Increasing the share of renewable energy in final energy consumption to 20% || 14.1% (2012) 
 Moving towards a 20% increase in energy efficiency (measured in terms of primary energy consumption and final energy consumption) || Primary energy consumption: 11.9% increase in energy efficiency (2013) Final energy consumption: 12.8% increase in energy efficiency (2013) 
 Reducing the rate of early leavers from education and training to less than 10% || 12.0% (2013) 
 Increasing the share of the population aged 30-34 having completed tertiary education to at least 40% || 36.9% (2013) 
 Lifting at least 20 million people out of the risk of poverty and social exclusion (equivalent to a target of 96.6 million) || 121.6 million people at risk of poverty or social exclusion (2013)[5] 
Source: European Commission
Against this background, one of the aims
of the public consultation on the Europe 2020 strategy was to gain deeper
knowledge of the delivery of the strategy on the ground. As a partnership between the EU and its Member States, the success
of the strategy crucially depends on the commitment and involvement of national
governments, parliaments, local and regional authorities, social partners,
other stakeholders and the civil society. It was thus important to harvest the
views of all of those involved in the implementation of the strategy, and learn
from their experience and best practices.
2. Key figures on the public
consultation on the Europe 2020 strategy
The public consultation on the Europe
2020 strategy was open from 5 May 2014 to 31 October 2014. It drew on a number
of tools to optimise its visibility and foster participation. In addition to the communication of the public consultation on Your
Voice in Europe, a dedicated website[6]
offered the possibility to fill in a questionnaire or to submit a position
paper and provided links to the main documents relating to the Europe 2020
strategy. The Commission designed this questionnaire to collect views on the
first years of the strategy and to gather ideas for its further development.
This website also includes a section dedicated to the publication of the
contributions received[7].

755 respondents took part in the public
consultation. The country distribution shows a
preponderance of replies from Belgium where European-level interest groups are
based. The participation rate was very low in Central and Eastern European
countries. Third country participants came from Norway, Switzerland, Canada and
the United States. The participants reflect the broad range of stakeholders of
the Europe 2020 strategy. Social partners, interest groups and non-governmental
organisations form the most represented category (41%), followed by Member
States' governments and public authorities, including local and regional
authorities (20%), individual citizens (19%) and think tanks, academia and
foundations (14%). Companies account for 6% of the respondents, a rather low
score which is counterbalanced by the higher score of interest groups
representing them.
Distribution of respondents by stakeholder category
 
Source:
European Commission
The distribution between areas covered
reflects the inclusiveness of the Europe 2020 strategy. A majority of participants covered all the areas of the strategy
in their replies, including economic and financial affairs, competitiveness,
industry, the single market, employment, research, development and innovation,
the digital economy, climate, energy and resource efficiency, education and
training, and poverty and social exclusion. The distribution between
contributions focused on one specific area is overall balanced. 
In addition to the official replies to
the public consultation, EU and national institutions have also fed into the
discussion on the review of the strategy. At the
initiative of the Italian Presidency of the Council, the review was discussed
in most sectoral Council formations. Drawing on the outcome of these
discussions, the Presidency presented a summary at the General Affairs Council
in December 2014[8].
The European Parliament has played an important role since the launching of the
strategy, including in mobilising national Parliaments to play their part. A
number of exchanges of views with national Parliaments on the Europe 2020
strategy and its further development have taken place in recent months.
Reflections on the review of the Europe
2020 strategy have generated strong interest and mobilised stakeholders
involved in the implementation of the strategy. The
Committee of the Regions, through the work of its monitoring platform, and the
European Economic and Social Committee, have been particularly active and
organised exchanges of views and discussions around the topics of the Europe
2020 strategy. Similarly, a range of events were organised in the Member
States, with the support of the European Semester Officers from the European
Commission, on the strategy as a whole or some of its features. These events
have enriched the dialogue with all the interested actors, built bridges between
the various networks of stakeholders, and gathered experience and best
practices from the ground to feed into the review of the strategy.
3.
Main outcomes from the public consultation on the Europe 2020 strategy
3.1
The scope and the objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy are still relevant
There is an overwhelming support for an
EU strategy in favour of jobs and growth. A large
majority of the respondents (86%) consider that Europe needs a comprehensive
and overarching medium-term strategy for jobs and growth for the coming years,
while only a few of them (14%) have mixed or negative views. The latter, mainly
individual citizens, consider either that the EU should focus on the
implementation of existing instruments; or that social, economic and environmental
development is more important than growth per se; or that
decision-makers should put aside the idea of infinite growth. The vast majority
of participants associate the strategy with their sphere of action and
appreciate its overarching capacity. The relevance of the triptych "smart,
sustainable and inclusive growth" is welcomed. 
The Europe 2020 strategy addresses
today's and tomorrow's challenges. The
contributions to the public consultation show a strong co-relation between the
areas identified by the participants as priorities and those encompassed by the
Europe 2020 strategy. 
3.2 The current five headline targets are relevant and mutually
reinforcing
Respondents very largely welcome the
targets as a useful instrument for the delivery of the strategy. Most (87%) consider the targets as a useful tool in the
implementation and monitoring of the Europe 2020 strategy, since they act as
benchmarks that help focus attention on a number of key areas. Some
contributions (10%) indicate avenues for improvement while acknowledging that
targets are a valuable instrument. A number of contributions emphasise the
importance of avoiding too many targets and thus of keeping a focused approach.
The targets are seen as unuseful by only a few of the respondents (3%).
Moreover, some respondents highlight the importance of complementing any
quantitative assessment of progress towards the targets with a qualitative
analysis. The importance of a qualitative analysis and evaluation is shared by
the Commission and is notably carried out in the context of the European
Semester.
There is strong support for keeping the
current five headline targets unchanged. A large
majority of respondents (78%) consider the current targets are sufficient. Some
respondents propose to add new targets whereas others question the relevance of
the target related to tertiary education, and underline the importance of
adapting skills to labour market needs in order to avoid mismatches. It is
important to recall that the targets are not meant to reflect the totality of
the EU's policies or ambitions – they are representative measurements of the
type of changes advocated by the Europe 2020 strategy. Some of the targets
suggested by contributors such as indicative targets for resource efficiency
and industry's share of GDP are already streamlined into other EU policies.
Finally, no clear hierarchy between the targets emerges from the public
consultation. Approximately half of the respondents take the position that the
targets are equally important and interdependent, that they are mutually
reinforcing and that altogether they contribute to jobs and growth.
3.3 The flagship initiatives have
served their purpose
The flagship initiatives have generally
served their purpose and action in their respective areas needs to be pursued
through other forms. Overall, participants see the
purpose of the flagship initiatives as improving the EU's performance to reach
the Europe 2020 targets. Yet, a significant number of participants (32%),
including governments and representative organisations, delivered a mixed
assessment: flagship initiatives were seen to have delivered their purpose by
giving an impetus to a range of priority actions. However, their added value
has been overshadowed by a lack of awareness and overlapping policy actions, in
turn making them redundant. Some respondents indicate that the flagship
initiatives are disconnected from their respective broader policy areas and
others perceive a blurring due to overlaps and a lack of prioritisation of the
flagship initiatives. Therefore, respondents argue that they should now be
replaced by more coherently organised and overarching policy programmes. 
3.4 Improving the delivery and the implementation of the strategy
would be important and desirable
There is scope to improve the delivery
of the Europe 2020 strategy. When asked if Europe
2020 made a difference, a majority (60%) of the respondents answer positively,
but many (40%) answer negatively and underline several implementation gaps as
well as ways to address them.
The successful implementation of the
strategy has been affected by weaknesses in terms of awareness, involvement and
enforcement. First, the contributions to the public
consultation point to an awareness gap regarding the strategy, either
explicitly when the respondents indicate that they cannot reply to some
questions, or implicitly when the replies misinterpret the content or the
objective of the strategy. Second, less than half of respondents (46%) say that
they are involved in the strategy and three quarters (77%) express a
willingness to get more involved in the strategy. Some useful best practices
also emerge from the contributions, such as the Stakeholder Committee set up by
the Danish government, which brings together around 30 organisations, from
business associations and labour unions to municipalities and non-governmental
organisations. Respondents support an enhanced enforcement framework to ensure
that the strategy delivers results, through the right level of ambition and
enforcement tools. If more than half of the respondents (58%) consider that
having national targets is important and appropriate, almost a third of them
(28%) stress that they should be ambitious enough and that the EU should
increase Member States' commitment by strengthening its monitoring process.
Respondents underline avenues for
improving the delivery of the Europe 2020 strategy.
Better targeted communication and information, increased exchanges of
experience and best practices across Member States, the involvement of all
relevant levels of stakeholders, a close monitoring of progress and the
introduction of incentives to foster the commitment to the strategy's
objectives are the main options favoured by the participants. 
3.5 Summary of the main lessons
learned
On the basis of the contributions received,
the Commission identifies the following strengths, weaknesses, opportunities
and threats for the Europe 2020 strategy.
 STRENGTHS •      Overwhelming support for an EU-wide jobs and growth strategy •      Consistency of the areas covered by Europe 2020 with the challenges to be tackled •      Relevant and mutually reinforcing targets •      Some already tangible progress: the EU is on course to meet or closely approach the targets on education, climate and energy || WEAKNESSES •      Lack of visibility of the flagship initiatives •      Need to improve the delivery and implementation of the strategy •      Insufficient involvement of the relevant stakeholders •      Far from reaching the targets on employment, research and development and poverty reduction 
 OPPORTUNITIES •      Actors willing to play an active role in the strategy •      Close monitoring of the strategy through the European Semester •      Alignment of Europe 2020 with the Commission's priorities (jobs, growth and investment) || THREATS •      The crisis has amplified divergences across and within Member States •      Political nature of the targets and lack of ambition of Member States 
Conclusion
The Commission will take the results of the
public consultation into account in further reflections on how the Europe 2020
strategy should be taken forward. In addition to the outcome of the public
consultation, the Commission will also consider the contributions received from
the European Parliament, the Council, national Parliaments, the European
Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. It will also
ensure that any proposals will be fully consistent with the ongoing work on
deepening the Economic and Monetary Union. 
In line with the Commission's work programme for 2015, the
Commission will present proposals for the review of the Europe 2020 strategy
before the end of the year.
[1] Standard Eurobarometer 81 of spring 2014 – Europe 2020 report.
[2] "Smarter, greener, more inclusive? Indicators to support the
Europe 2020 strategy", 2015 edition, Eurostat.
[3] COM(2014) 130 final.
[4] With the notable exception of the targets on greenhouse gas
emissions' reduction and on the use of renewable energy, which are supported by
a legally binding framework at EU level, including values to be reached at
national level.
[5] The target is measured for the EU27 as there is no available data
for Croatia in 2008, i.e. the base year for the calculation of the target.
[6] http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/public-consultation/index_en.htm, hosted
by the general website of the Europe 2020 strategy
[7] http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/public-consultation/contributions/index_en.htm
[8] http://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-16559-2014-INIT/en/pdf