”Wide ownership” of Europe 2020 strategy – and more intense

The European Union and the EU member states have programmes for competitiveness in and of Europe, but the Europe 2020 growth strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth (EU2020) and the relaunch of the Single Market (through the Single Market Act SMA) need to develop much beyond ritualistic planning and reporting chores for a handful of EU and central government officials.


”Wide ownership”

At least, the spring meeting of the European Council 24 to 25 March 2011 (EUCO 10/11) paid lip service to the need to engage all stakeholders, but the summit silently dismissed the demand from the Committee of the Regions to create territorial growth pacts:

6. In implementing these policies, and in order to ensure wide ownership, close cooperation will be maintained with the European Parliament and other EU institutions and advisory bodies (ESC, CoR), with the full involvement of national parliaments, social partners, regions and other stakeholders.

Regarding the challenge from the CoR and support from the European Parliament and the Commission, see the blog post (in Swedish) 'Regionerna utmanar EU-rådet: Pakt och partnerskap för EU2020-strategin' and (in English) 'Europe 2020 strategy: Regions challenge central governments', published just before the ides of March.

Having thwarted the regional ambitions, what are the European Council, the Council (of ministers) and the EU member states going to do to create at least a sense of wider ownership, even if lacking empowerment?

How are they going to manifest their own ownership more intensely?

They make or break the reform strategies for competitiveness, but how often do we see signs of the EU2020 strategy and the SMA at the top of the political agenda in the member states?

How much of a wider debate do we notice?


Hungarian benchmark

At this point, I am far from convinced that the EU2020 strategy will prove to be a greater success than the lost decade of the Lisbon strategy, even if proactive reform policies are crucial for the prosperity and the public services of Europeans.

However, even in dire circumstances there are almost always pockets of excellence to be found.

The Hungarian presidency of the Council of the European Union communicated brilliantly about the informal meeting of research ministers on innovation challenges 11 to 13 April 2011.

Is the Council secretariat prepared to improve the Consilium web pages by including links to future informal ministerial meetings of the different Council configurations? Is the next presidency trio – Poland, Denmark and Cyprus (Wikipedia) - ready to equal or surpass the benchmark set by Hungary regarding the meeting of the ministers for research?

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We have to find and to nurture pockets of excellence, necessary to promote and communicate both wider and more intense ownership of the Europe 2020 growth strategy and other reform programmes, such as the Single Market Act and the Small Business Act, based on the sustainable foundations of the Stability or Convergence Programmes.



Ralf Grahn



P.S. In French and English, La Quadrature du Net informs us about legal developments at EU and national level and advocates the rights and freedoms of citizens on the Internet. Highly recommended.

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.