The Europe 2020 Strategy at Midterm: Disappointing Assessment Calls for an Urgent Change Driven by Long-run Priorities. WWWforEurope Policy Paper No. 17

Europe 2020 tried to overcome the failures of the Lisbon Strategy. Goals set by the European commission were allowed to be adapted to take account of the starting position and the preferences of member countries ("national ownership"), the monitoring process was improved and the coordination between different policy strands institutionalised (in the European Semester), and "flagship initiatives" were aimed at initiating processes to support the strategy goals. Nevertheless halfway to the year 2020 the most important goals – raising the employment ratio, reduction of poverty and raising of research expenditure – seem to be out of reach. For the education goals the quantitative targets could be reached, but quality goals should also be monitored. The sustainability goals may be attained because of the crisis-driven stagnation in economic activity, but were set without ambition and they do not lead to a fair European contribution to limiting global warming to 2 degrees as envisaged in the "Energy Roadmap 2050". Neither can it be said that Europe sufficiently inverts becoming the world leader in clean technology or energy efficiency. We analyse the reasons for this underperformance and we address which urgent changes could help Europe come closer to achieving its targets by 2020. Finally we consider how economic policy should be shaped by a longer-run vision of Europe's position in the globalised world of 2050 as put forward in the WWWforEurope project, which is performed by a team of 34 European research groups and funded by the European Commission.