Archive:Europe 2020 indicators - background

This article is part of a set of statistical articles on the Europe 2020 strategy. It introduces the Europe 2020 strategy and the broader political context in which it is embedded. The articles cover the five thematic areas of Europe 2020 on employment, education, poverty and social exclusion, climate change and energy and R&D and innovation. An executive summary article outlines the main trends revealed by the Europe 2020 indicators. Additional ‘country profiles’ describe the progress of each Member State towards its national Europe 2020 targets.

Providing statistical support to Europe 2020

The 2017 edition of Eurostat’s annual 'flagship publication' entitled 'Smarter, greener, more inclusive? — Indicators to support the Europe 2020 strategy' provides statistical support for the Europe 2020 strategy, the EU’s agenda for jobs and growth for the current decade, and monitors progress towards its headline targets. The publication presents the most recent official statistics disseminated by Eurostat, with the aim of providing statistical analyses related to important European Commission policy frameworks and relevant economic, social and environmental phenomena. Impartial and objective statistical information is essential for evidence-based political decision-making and defines Eurostat’s role in the context of the Europe 2020 strategy. It involves developing and choosing relevant indicators to support the strategy, producing statistical data and assuring the indicators’ quality.

The analysis in the five thematic articles is based on the Europe 2020 headline indicators developed to monitor the strategy’s targets. Other indicators focusing on specific subgroups of society or on related issues that show underlying trends are also used to deepen the analysis and present a broader picture. The data used mainly come from official ESS sources such as the EU Labour Force Survey (EU LFS) or the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU SILC), as well as from administrative sources. Data on EU-28 aggregates and individual Member States are presented and, where available, comparisons are made with the members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and candidate countries, as well as non-European countries such as the United States and Japan. For some of the headline indicators, maps presenting the performance of Europe’s regions and their progress towards the national Europe 2020 targets are included, even though the targets only apply on a national level.

The thematic articles analyse past trends, generally since 2002 or 2008, up to the most recent year for which data are available (2015 or 2016). They aim to document and analyse the trends shown by the headline indicators and the distance to the Europe 2020 targets, while also using supplementary indicators to provide the broader context. The articles include references to analyses published by the European Commission on the future efforts required to meet the targets. Most recent data on the headline indicators and information on the Europe 2020 strategy are available on a dedicated section of Eurostat’s website: Europe 2020 headline indicators.

The Europe 2020 strategy

The Europe 2020 strategy (European Commission, 2010) was adopted by the European Council on 17 June 2010 as the successor of the Lisbon strategy. It emphasises smart, sustainable and inclusive growth as a way of strengthening the EU economy and preparing its structure for the challenges of the next decade.

Three key priorities and eight targets

The Europe 2020 strategy puts forward three mutually reinforcing priorities to make Europe a smarter, more sustainable and more inclusive place to live:

• Smart growth, through the development of an economy based on knowledge, research and innovation.
• Sustainable growth, through the promotion of resource efficient, green and competitive markets.
• Inclusive growth, through policies aimed at fostering job creation and poverty reduction.

In a rapidly changing world, these priorities are deemed essential for making the European economy fit for the future and for delivering higher employment, productivity and social cohesion (European Commission, 2010). Under the three key priorities, the EU adopted eight targets (see Figure 1):

• Smart growth: covered by the target on R&D and two targets on education
• Sustainable growth: covered by three targets on climate change and energy
• Inclusive growth: covered by the targets on employment and on poverty and social exclusion.

Figure 1: The Europe 2020 strategy's key priorities, targets and flagship initiatives

The targets are monitored using a set of nine headline indicators and additional sub-indicators related to various dimensions of the data (such as the multidimensional concept of poverty and social exclusion). For a detailed overview of the indicators, see Table 1 in the Executive summary. The strategy's objectives and targets are further supported by thematic flagship initiatives (see Figure 1).

Figure 2: Europe 2020 strategy thematic areas

The eight targets belong to five thematic areas: employment, education, poverty and social exclusion, climate change and energy, and R&D and innovation (see Figure 2). These five areas are strongly interlinked. For example, higher educational levels are associated with improved employability and increasing the employment rate helps to reduce poverty. A greater capacity for R&D and innovation across all sectors of the economy, combined with increased resource efficiency, would improve competitiveness and foster job creation. Investing in cleaner, low-carbon technologies would help the environment, contribute to the fight against climate change and create new business and employment opportunities (European Commission, 2010, p.11).

The EU targets have been translated into national targets. These reflect each Member State’s situation and the level of ambition they are able to reach as part of the EU-wide effort for implementing the Europe 2020 strategy. However, not in all cases are the national targets sufficiently ambitious to cumulatively reach the EU-level targets. For instance, the fulfilment of all national targets in the area of employment would bring the overall EU-28 employment rate up to 74 %, which would still be one percentage point below the Europe 2020 target of 75 %. Similarly, even if all Member States met their national targets on R&D expenditure, the EU would still fall short of its target of 3 % R&D intensity, reaching only 2.6 % by 2020 (European Commission, 2014, p. 12-16).

Seven flagship initiatives

To ensure progress towards the Europe 2020 goals, a broad range of existing EU policies and instruments are used, including the single market, the EU budget and external policy tools. The ten priorities of the Commission (see section ‘Ten priorities for the EU’ below) guide the EU policies and help ensure progress towards smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The strategy itself identified seven policy areas where jobs and growth were put forward through the following seven flagship initiatives: ‘Innovation Union’, ‘Youth on the move’ , ‘Digital agenda for Europe’, ‘Resource efficient Europe’ , ‘An industrial policy for the globalisation era’, ‘Agenda for new skills and jobs’ and ‘European platform against poverty and social exclusion’.

Taking stock of Europe 2020 – how to pursue smart, sustainable and inclusive growth?

In March 2014, the Commission published its communication ‘Taking stock of the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth’. The mid-term evaluation revealed that progress towards the Europe 2020 targets and flagship initiatives had been mixed: while the EU was on course to meet its targets on education, climate and energy, it was still far from fulfilling the employment, research and development, and poverty reduction targets (European Commission, 2014, p. 21).

Between May and October 2014, the Commission held a public consultation seeking stakeholders’ views on the lessons to be learned from the first years of the strategy’s implementation. The main conclusions drawn from the public consultation, published in 2015, were:

• ‘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.’

In the 2016 Annual Growth Survey, the Commission stated that it will make the best use of the Europe 2020 strategy and its tools by improving its implementation and monitoring in the context of the European Semester.

In the 2017 Annual Growth Survey, the Commission called on Member States to redouble their efforts along the so-called virtuous triangle of economic policy: boosting investment, pursuing structural reforms and ensuring responsible fiscal policies. Emphasis was placed on the importance of ensuring social fairness to deliver more inclusive growth, as well as on the need to strengthen competitiveness, innovation and productivity.

The European Semester: annual cycle of policy coordination

Figure 3: The European Semester
Source: European Commission

The success of the Europe 2020 strategy crucially depends on Member States coordinating their efforts. To ensure this, the European Commission has set up an annual cycle of coordination of economic policies known as the European Semester. Its main purpose is to foster structural reforms, to create more jobs and growth in line with the Europe 2020 strategy, to boost investment, to ensure sound public finances (avoiding excessive government debt) and compliance with the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) and to prevent excessive macroeconomic imbalances in the EU.

Figure 3 presents the different steps of the European Semester policy cycle. These include:

• Adoption of the Annual Growth Survey (AGS) by the European Commission, which sets out overall economic and social priorities for the EU and its Member States.
• Publication of the Commission’s Alert Mechanism Report (AMR), the draft Joint Employment Report and recommendations for the euro area, accompanied by a Staff Working Document.
• Publication of a country report by the Commission services for each Member State, analysing its economic and social situation and progress with implementing the country specific recommendations and towards the Europe 2020 strategy. For the Member States selected in the Alert Mechanism Report, it also includes the ‘in-depth review’ of possible imbalances.
• Submission of the the National Reform Programmes (NRPs) and Stability and Convergence Programmes (SCPs) by each Member State, presenting concrete reforms and measures towards implementing the Europe 2020 strategy.
• Adoption of the proposals for country-specific recommendations for each Member State (except those under a stability support programme) by the Commission, followed by a formal Council endorsement of the country-specific recommendations. The recommendations focus on the issues which require the most urgent attention in the next 12 to 18 months due to their macro-and socioeconomic significance. They are consistent with the Europe 2020 strategy.

Europe 2020 in a broader policy perspective

Strengthening economic governance

To ensure progress towards the Europe 2020 goals, a broad range of existing EU policies and instruments are used, including the single market, the EU budget and external policy tools. Central to tackling the weaknesses revealed by the economic crisis and to achieving the Europe 2020 objectives of growth and competitiveness is the promotion of enhanced economic governance. On top of and closely linked to the European Semester, two important elements in this respect are the Macroeconomic Imbalances Procedure (MIP) and the Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP) based on the Stability and Growth Pact.

In June 2015, the President of the European Commission, in close cooperation with the President of the Euro Summit, the President of the Eurogroup, the President of the European Central Bank, and the President of the European Parliament, presented a report titled ‘Completing Europe's Economic and Monetary Union’, also known as the Five Presidents’ Report . It proposed a roadmap for strengthening the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) by taking actions on four fronts: economic, financial, fiscal and political. As laid out in the roadmap, a number of immediate steps should be taken by mid-2017. The roadmap supports the implementation of the Europe 2020 strategy by proposing concrete steps towards ‘job creation, growth and prosperity for all citizens’.

As a follow-up to the Five President’s report, the European Commission issued a Communication ‘On steps towards completing the Economic and Monetary Union’. It laid out a plan for strengthening the European Semester by better integrating European and national dimensions, placing a stronger focus on employment and social performance, promoting convergence by benchmarking and pursuing best practices, as well as by supporting structural reforms through the provision of EU funds and technical assistance.

At the start of the 2017 annual cycle of the European Semester, together with the ‘Recommendation on the economic policy of the euro area for 2017–2018’ the Commission issued a Communication ‘Towards a positive fiscal stance for the euro area’. This sets out the case for a more expansionary fiscal policy for the euro area at this point in time to support the ongoing recovery and overcome the risk of a ‘low growth, low inflation’ situation. It emphasises that the quality and composition of public finances as well as the very different situations of Member States in terms of fiscal space or consolidation needs should be taken into account when designing a growth-friendly fiscal policy. In particular, Member States in the excessive deficit procedure and others still needing to progress towards their medium-term budgetary objective should continue to do so, whereas Member States with fiscal space should be encouraged to carry out a more expansionary fiscal policy.

On 31 May 2017, as a follow-up to the White Paper on the future of Europe of 1 March 2017, the Commission adopted a Reflection Paper on the deepening of the Economic and Monetary Union. This document includes avenues to reinforce further the European Semester.

The 2030 Agenda for sustainable development

The Europe 2020 strategy gives recognition to the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development by drawing attention to education, research and development and innovation, low carbon emissions, climate resilience and environmental impact, and job creation and poverty reduction. In a broader policy perspective, the Europe 2020 strategy plays an important role in addressing the internationally adopted 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and thus putting the European Union on the right track to achieving a sustainable future.

The 2030 Agenda was formally adopted by world leaders at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015. The document, titled ‘Transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development’, consists of a declaration, a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs; see Box 1 for a full list) and 169 related targets, a section on the means of implementation and on the follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda. The EU was instrumental in shaping the global 2030 Agenda, which is fully consistent with Europe's vision and has now become the world's blueprint for global sustainable development.

In March 2017, at its 48th session, the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) adopted a global indicator framework for monitoring progress towards the SDGs. The global list consists of 244 indicators to measure progress towards the 169 targets of the SDGs. In November 2016, the European Commission released the Communication ‘Next steps for a sustainable European future: European action for sustainability’, outlining its approach to achieving the 2030 Agenda. It presents the EU's answer to the 2030 Agenda and includes two work streams. The first work stream is to fully integrate the SDGs in the European policy framework and current Commission priorities, assessing where we stand and identifying the most relevant sustainability concerns. A second track is related to reflection work on further developing the EU's longer term vision and the focus of sectoral policies after 2020, preparing for the long-term implementation of the SDGs.

Box 1: The Sustainable Development Goals:

Goal 1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere

Goal 2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

Goal 3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

Goal 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

Goal 5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Goal 6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

Goal 7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

Goal 8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

Goal 9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

Goal 10. Reduce inequality within and among countries

Goal 11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

Goal 12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

Goal 13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts (*)

Goal 14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

Goal 15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

Goal 16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels

Goal 17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development

(*) Acknowledging that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is the primary international, intergovernmental forum for negotiating the global response to climate change.

Eurostat has been leading the process of developing a reference indicator framework for monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals in an EU context. To achieve this, it has been working closely with European Commission Directorate Generals and with the consultation of Commission services and experts from Member States' national statistical institutes. Several bodies have been consulted, including Council Committees, the European Statistical Advisory Committee (ESAC), non-governmental organisations, academia and other international organisations.

The EU SDG indicator set received a favourable opinion by the European Statistical System Committee in May 2017. The list comprises 100 indicators, structured along the 17 SDGs and covering the social, economic, environmental and institutional dimensions of sustainability as represented by the Agenda 2030. Each SDG is presented through a set of five to six indicators reflecting its broad objective and ambition, and additional multi-purpose indicators to track two or more targets across goals. The indicator set looks at how the EU policies contribute to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. In this respect, it complements from an EU perspective the UN global indicators, which refer instead to the goals and targets as specified in the 2030 Agenda. Although the EU SDG indicator set has been aligned as far as appropriate with the UN list of global indicators, it does not intend to cover all aspects of the SDGs or to fully reproduce the UN global list. Instead, it includes indicators relevant to the EU which allow SDGs to be monitored in the context of long-term EU policies, such as the Europe 2020 strategy, the 10 Commission priorities, the Circular Economy Package or other policies or initiatives reported in the staff working document ‘Key European action supporting the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development’.

For more information on the SDGs, both on the process at UN level as well as from the European perspective, please refer to the Eurostat publication ‘Sustainable development in the European Union — A statistical glance from the viewpoint of the UN Sustainable Development Goals’, as well as to the forthcoming first edition of the Eurostat EU SDG monitoring report, based on the approved EU SDG indicator list.

Ten priorities for the EU

Before being elected president of the European Commission in July 2014, Jean-Claude Juncker presented his political agenda, highlighting ten priority areas, in a document entitled 'A New Start for Europe: My Agenda for Jobs, Growth Fairness and Democratic Change' (see Box 2). These are referred to as ‘political guidelines’ for the European Commission and address some of the key challenges facing the European economy and society. Emphasis is placed on achieving concrete results in the identified priority areas whereas other policy areas are left to Member States who are considered better equipped to form effective policy responses at national, regional and local level.

In September 2016, the Commission released a report on Progress on the European Commission’s 10 Priorities. As outlined in the document, in its first year the investment plan for jobs and growth, which has the ambition to mobilise at least EUR 315 billion for investment over three years, has raised EUR 116 billion in new investments across 26 of the EU Member States. Since its first year in office, the European Commission has been working on the Energy Union, the Digital Single Market and a Capital Markets Union, among others. Important progress in further cutting mobile roaming charges and adopting new EU data protection rules was made in 2016. A roadmap for deepening the Economic and Monetary Union was presented in the Five Presidents’ Report (European Commission, 2015). The Commission has worked towards a coordinated European response to the challenges of increased movement of migrants and refugees and has supported the most affected Member States with a financial assistance of EUR 91 million under the national programmes for the period 2014 to 2020. The EU has also taken actions to respond to the terrorist threat, strengthening EU’s external borders and tackling radicalisation through the creation of the new European Boarder and Coast Guard, Europol’s new European Counter-Terrorism Centre and the Radicalisation Awareness Network’s Centre of Excellence, to name a few examples.

Box 2: The ten European Commission priorities:

1. A new boost for Jobs, Growth and Investment
2. A connected Digital Single Market
3. A resilient Energy Union with a forward-looking climate change policy
4. A deeper and fairer internal market with a strengthened industrial base
5. A deeper and fairer Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)
6. A reasonable and balanced free trade agreement with the United States
7. An area of justice and fundamental rights based on mutual trust
8. Towards a new policy on migration
9. Europe as a stronger global actor
10. A Union of Democratic Change.

White Paper on the future of Europe

At the Rome Summit on 1 March 2017 the Commission presented a White Paper, setting out a broader vision for the future of the EU and the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). The White Paper outlines the main demographic, economic and political challenges the EU will be facing in the future and presents five scenarios of the potential state of the Union in 2025.

• Scenario 1: Carrying On — The EU-27 ‘focuses on delivering its positive reform agenda’ in the spirit of the Juncker Commission's New Start for Europe from 2014 and the Bratislava Declaration from 2016.
• Scenario 2: Nothing but the Single Market — The EU-27 is ‘gradually re-centred on the single market’ as Member States are not able to find common ground on many policy areas.
• Scenario 3: Those Who Want More, Do More — The EU-27 proceeds as today, but in addition it ‘allows willing Member States to do more together in specific areas’ such as defense, internal security, taxation or social matters.
• Scenario 4: Doing Less, More Efficiently — The EU-27 ‘focuses on delivering more and faster in selected policy areas, while doing less’ where it is perceived to have more limited added value.
• Scenario 5: Doing Much More Together — ‘Member States decide to share more power, resources and decision-making across the board’.

The White Paper aims to open an honest debate on how the Union should evolve in the years to come. To facilitate this process, the European Commission will host a series of 'Future of Europe Debates' across Europe's cities and regions to harness opinions of citizens on the desired way forward and will further contribute to the discussions with a series of reflection papers. This process allow a collective view on a course of action to be reached in time for the European Parliament elections in June 2019.

The White Paper has been supplemented by five reflection papers on specific issues that are important for the future of the European Union with 27 Member States — the social dimension of Europe, harnessing globalisation, the deepening of the economic and monetary union, the future of European defence and the future of EU finances.

See also

• Europe 2020 headline indicators

Further Eurostat information

Publications

• Smarter, greener, more inclusive? - Indicators to support the Europe 2020 strategy

Main tables

• Europe 2020 indicators

Dedicated section

• Europe 2020 indicators

Methodology / Metadata

• Towards robust quality management for European Statistics - Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council COM(2011) 211 final.

Other information

• Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of 11 March 2009 on European statistics

External links

• European Commission website Europe 2020