How to get back on track to reach the social objectives of Europe 2020

Europe 2020 was launched in 2010 as the EU’s strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Five headline targets were set including objectives on employment, the reduction of poverty and social exclusion and education. In 2015, a mid-term assessment of the Strategy will take place and in light of this, we adopted on June 24 a position paper with recommendations on how the strategy should be reviewed. Two days later, on June 26 we presented these recommendations to the European Commission's Secretariat General in a joint Seminar.
 
Four years after the start of the strategy its failures are becoming more and more apparent as we are no-where near to reaching the poverty and employment goals. We urgently need a rebalancing, within the strategy, of financial and economic priorities with a strong commitment to social priorities: we cannot ensure a strong economic union without a strong social union. There needs to be much more ambitious and quick action from the EU and member states to deliver on the social targets of Europe 2020, and everyone must make maximum use of the tools and processes at their disposal.
 
In our paper we have put together a set of recommendations that will help to put the EU back on track to reach the social objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy, formulated around the following key messages:
  1. Ensuring consistency of policies and transparent processes: Review the architecture of Europe 2020 and the Semester process to ensure the policies and actions implemented under the strategy are consistent with all its objectives, and to ensure its legitimacy through more transparency.
  1. Ensuring progress on the social targets: Reduce poverty and social exclusion, inequalities and unemployment, increase quality employment and improve educational attainment under Europe 2020, in order to put the well-being of all people back at the centre of the strategy.
  1. Ensuring meaningful and structured stakeholder involvement: Open up the decision making processes to social NGOs ready to play their role in their areas of expertise, in developing policies and in the implementation of the economic and social priorities of the EU.

Read Social Platform's position paper on the mid-term review.

Take a look at the presentation on the mid-term review of the Secretariat General