EU 2020 website and Youth on the move: Nul points !

The Europe 2020 strategy is the raison d’être of the Barroso II Commission, so preparation and communication of the seven flagship initiatives must be highly visible, and they have to go hand in hand.

Is this theory or practice?



Youth and education



In the blog entry Europe 2020 flagship initiative Youth on the move (EU Commission Work Programme 2010) we saw the high rates of youth unemployment, indicating that the European labour markets are dysfunctional, despite the demographic challenges of ageing populations. The Commission Work Programme (CWP) 2010 promises the Europe 2020 flagship initiative Youth on the move in the third quarter of 2010, and a communication on Youth and Employment has been promised in the fourth quarter.



Europe 2020 website

Given the defining importance of the Europe 2020 strategy for the whole term of the Barroso II Commission, in terms of aims, action, positioning and communication, the central Europe 2020 website should be a vibrant well of constantly updated information, well structured and thematically arranged.



Exaggerating ever so slightly, we called the central Europe 2020 website “dead as the dodo”, when we looked at it 28 June 2010.



This is the evidence today: According to the Europe 2020 web page, it was last updated 6 May 2010. This cannot be true, because the text says that the Europe 2020 strategy “will be formally adopted in 17 June 2010”. The date is actually a link to the conclusions adopted (not to be adopted) by the European Council on that day (without saying so; document EUCO 13/10).

The links in the margin look even more abandoned. The latest news link is from 26 March, and the most recent documents from 6 May 2010.

Nothing has happened in almost two weeks, since our last look.

Forsaken, deserted ... If this is the level of care and commitment shown to the defining strategy (raison d’être) of the current Commission, what can we expect in other policy areas?

Naturally, we gained no new knowledge about the preparation of the flagship initiative Youth on the move, either.

Commission europénne, nul points !




Ralf Grahn