State of EUnion: Wide ownership of Europe 2020?

Can we hope for more ambitious economic policy reforms from the EU member states? How did the European Council and the European Parliament endorse Single Market reform? What did the Commission's Single Market Act (SMA) look like the morning after having been provisionally launched? How did the General Affairs Council (GAC) practice open and fair dealing in its follow-up of the meetings of the Europan Council meetings on 4 February, 11 March and 24-25 March 2011, including the questions we have followed: sustainable public finances, growth-enhancing reforms (Europe 2020) and the Single Market Act?

These blog posts tell us something about the real state of the union – the EU institutions and the member states – subject to later updates and improvements.


Updates and improvements?

This morning we were waiting for the first Stability Programme or Convergence Programme from a member state to appear on the web pages of the Commission's DG Economic and Financial Affairs (Ecfin).

This morning we were waiting for the first National Reform Programme (NRP) of an EU country to be posted on the Commission's website for the Europe 2020 growth strategy (or any new item under latest documents and reports).

This morning we were waiting for the the language versions after Italian on the Commission's website about the Single Market Act to be made accessible, as well as for updates of the visible ones : Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, German, Estonian, Greek, Spanish and Italian (notably the communication in the national language). The final versions of the communication in English and French have yet to appear. .

This morning we were waiting for the final version of the communication COM(2011) 206 to appear in any language on Eur-Lex under preparatory documents, as well as the accompanying SEC(2011) 467 (in English?).

This morning we were waiting for any new public documents (among the 200 latest ones) regarding economic policy implementation, the Europe 2020 strategy, the Single Market Act or a meaningful follow-up to the European Council meetings 2011 (concerning economic reform) to appear on the Council website.

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If the European Council is serious about wide EU2020 ownership and economic policy cooperation engaging all stakeholders, improvements and updates are needed.



Ralf Grahn



P.S. Dave Keating, and American journalist in Brussels, writes the Gulf Stream Blues blog, well worth following.