Trio.eu

Spain's Minister of Employment, Celestino Corbacho, has told the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Durao Barroso, that the Spanish Presidency of the EU agrees with the objectives of his 2020 Strategy proposal, which aims to define a way out of the current economic crisis, economic growth and job creation over the coming decade.

Corbacho congratulated the Commission on the speed with which it has submitted the proposal to replace the so-called “Lisbon strategy” as the backbone of EU economic policy.

Two of the objectives are to increase the rate of employment of citizens aged between 20 and 64 to at least 75%, from the current rate of 69%, and to increase spending on technological research and development from 1.9% of EU GDP to 3%.
Another objective is to cut CO2 emissions by 20% with respect to 1990 levels, although the Commission pointed out that Europe's offer to increase emissions reductions by 30% is still on the table "subject to (international) conditions".

The mention of a change in the energy model to one based on a philosophy of saving and renewable energy - in which Spain leads the market - is also “a very good step in the right direction”, according to Corbacho.
A further objective involves reducing the percentage of school dropouts to 10%, increasing the number of young people with higher education qualifications from today's figure of 31% to at least 40%, and to reduce the number of Europeans at risk of poverty from 80 to 20 million.

Next steps

Member States will now embark on a period of reflection to consider these proposals, a process that Spain will promote in each of the sector councils it will chair in coming months.

During a joint press conference with the Spanish Secretary of State for the EU, Diego López Garrido, Mr Corbacho declared, “We will work towards achieving approval of the first general lines during the spring Council meeting (25 and 26 March), and we would like to see final approval reached during the European Council meeting of June (17 and 18), with contributions from all Member States”.

For the Secretary of State, who is actively participating in the 2020 Strategy project, the difference with Lisbon is that the new strategy encourages a “stronger, more decisive and specific” governance and one that will avoid falling into a series of abstract objectives.

There is therefore an emphasis on making “more forceful use” of Community instruments such as the single internal market, described by López Garrido as “one of the treasures of the EU, and one that should be used to the full”, or the
use of financial instruments and structural funds as incentives.

Furthermore, the European Council, made up of the Heads of State or Government of EU Member States “heads the political impetus”.

In addition, each year the European Commission will supervise the set of indicators of the Strategy, prepare results reports and issue recommendations and even warnings to Member States.

For López Garrido, this model “is much more effective than the hypothesis of certain sanctions”.

Other relevant issues in the Commission's proposal, according the Mr Corbacho, include Europe's need to be prepared to compete in a globalised world on the basis of knowledge and a commitment to an inclusive economy capable of sustaining the hallmark of social cohesion.