Tag: EU 2020

The European Commission signalled yesterday (5 January) that it would press member states hard to deliver "concrete steps" towards the EU's goal of a 20% improvement in energy efficiency by 2020.

Patent reform and new sources of finance are at the heart of the EU's new innovation strategy, published today (6 October) by the European Commission. The EU has also announced the first 'Innovation Partnership', which will begin next year and is dedicated to healthy ageing.

After months of quarrelling, EU member states are set to agree on numerical targets to improve the European social economy by 2020, including education and poverty, according to the draft conclusions of tomorrow's EU summit, obtained by EurActiv. 

Frank Brown, Dean of INSEAD business school, says Europe must get its act together if it wants to emerge stronger from the economic crisis. He spoke to EurActiv ahead of this year’s European Business Summit (EBS).

The EU's draft ten-year economic strategy, dubbed 'Europe 2020', needs to be ambitious in the face of global competition but must first and foremost be a ''realistic document'', Czech Minister for European Affairs Juraj Chmiel told EurActiv.cz in an interview.

EU finance ministers are fighting against the European Commission's target of spending 3% of GDP on research and development (R&D), demanding a new "outcome-oriented" measure of success.

The official in charge of Europe's new ten-year economic strategy has said the European Commission will rely on scoreboards and public warnings to embarrass national governments into hitting targets on reform and research investment. 

The EU's new growth strategy, due to be rubber-stamped by the new Barroso Commission on Wednesday (3 March), includes a blueprint for transforming Europe into an 'Innovation Union' by 2020.

The EU's new strategy for sustainable growth and job comes in the midst of the worst economic crisis for decades. It puts innovation and green growth at the heart of its blueprint for competitiveness, but will have to include tighter monitoring if it is to succeed where the Lisbon Agenda failed.

A daunting agenda awaits the incoming Barroso II team ahead of its confirmation vote in the European Parliament tomorrow (9 February), as valuable time has been lost in ratifying the Lisbon Treaty, choosing new leaders and putting in place the new EU executive.

Realistic targets, shared commitments and scientific education are the three ingredients which Wim Philippa, secretary-general of the European Round Table of Industrialists, believes are needed to make the EU fit for the challenges which lie ahead.

European governments are working behind the scenes to find common ground on the EU 2020 strategy designed to deliver growth and jobs for the next decade. The EurActiv network highlights the variety of views emerging from across the bloc.

There is a seat for Europe at the world talks table, but European leaders need to become more strategic and revisit the successful approach of the EU's founding fathers, Stanley Crossick, the founding chairman of the European Policy Centre, told EurActiv in an interview.

The UK wants to see European commissioners "named and shamed" if they add to the burden on small businesses, as part of a more focused approach to reducing unemployment in Europe.