Transcript Europe 2020 presentation

Valentina Fikardou
Giorgos Constantinou
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Europe 2020 is the EU's growth strategy for the
coming decade.
To make EU a smart, sustainable and inclusive
economy.
To help the EU and the Member States deliver
high levels of employment, productivity and
social cohesion.
The Union has set five ambitious objectives to
be reached by 2020 :
 Employment
 Innovation
 Education
 Social inclusion
 Climate/energy
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Smart growth means improving the EU's
performance in:
education (encouraging people to learn, study
and update their skills)
research/innovation (creating new
products/services that generate growth and
jobs and help address social challenges)
digital society (using information and
communication technologies)
Sustainable growth – (for a resource efficient,
greener and more competitive economy)
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building a more competitive low-carbon economy
that makes efficient, sustainable use of resources
protecting the environment, reducing emissions
and developing new green technologies and
production methods
introducing efficient smart electricity grids
harnessing EU-scale networks to give our
businesses an additional competitive advantage
improving the business environment, in particular
for SMEs
Helping consumers make well-informed choices.
Inclusive growth – (a high-employment economy
delivering economic, social and territorial
cohesion)
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raising Europe’s employment rate – more and
better jobs, especially for women, young people
and older workers
helping people of all ages anticipate and manage
change through investment in skills & training
modernizing labour markets and welfare systems
ensuring the benefits of growth reach all parts of
the EU
The crisis exposed fundamental problems and
unsustainable trends in many European countries. The
new EU economic governance is based on three main
blocks:
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A reinforced economic agenda with closer EU
surveillance.
Action to safeguard the stability of the euro area.
Action to repair the financial sector
Austerity is defined as a state of reduced spending
and increased frugality in the financial sector. It
refers to the measures taken by governments to
reduce expenditures in an attempt to shrink their
growing budget deficits.
Austerity comes in many forms:
 higher taxes
 fewer state benefits
 more job cuts
 working longer until retirement.
Greece one of three Euro zone nations to need an
international bailout.
Has cut spending on:
 Public sector salaries
 Pensions
 Education
 Health care and defence.
As a result, unemployment has soared to over 21%,
fuelling social unrest that has sometimes turned
deadly.
Portugal is paying its bills only because of an
international rescue loan. But the effect of lower
government spending is:
 The economy is expected to contract 3.4% this year
after a double-dip recession last year.
 Unemployment has climbed to a record 15%.
 New labour laws have made it easier for
employers to hire and fire workers and change
their working hours.
 Rent controls have been scrapped and state energy
companies have been sold off.
Ireland, the third European nation on rescue loans.
 It has been forced to raise taxes and slash spending
for years and that won't stop until at least 2015.
 The sales tax is now up to a whopping 23%
 middle-class wages have been cut around 15%.
 Residents face higher taxes on incomes, cars,
homes and fuel.
 Nearly 15% are unemployed and seen lower
welfare and other benefit payments.
 Ireland has also cut the number of civil servants.
Spain
 The government has raised income and property
taxes
 cut spending on healthcare and education
 made it easier for companies to fire workers
 on the heels of a real estate market implosion
 Unemployment is around 25%, a record in the 17nation euro zone
 Half of its young people have no jobs.
 The country's sales tax has been increased to 18%.
France
 The government has increased the retirement
age from 60 to 62
 Raised the sales tax from 5.5 to 7% on nonessential products
 Cut tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations
 Reduced regional and local government
budgets
 For the next two years, two state workers have
to retire before one is replaced.
Italy
 Austerity measures have sent Italian
unemployment up to 9.8%
 Put the country in a recession that is expected to
shrink its economy 1.2% this year.
 The prime minister, Mario Monti, is trying to
change laws to make it easier to fire workers.
 Rome dropped its bid for the 2020 Olympics after
the government said it could not back the
estimated €9.58bn cost,
 An art museum near Naples burned paintings to
protest against the lack of culture funding.
Britain
 Britain's coalition government is making
spending cuts of £103bn through 2017
 University tuition costs have soared, provoking
violent protests.
 Harsh spending cuts have slashed government
jobs by the thousands and cut funding to
police.
 Unions have threatened to strike and disrupt
the London Olympics to oppose the cuts.
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Europe 2020 is not up to the challenge.
The Commission needs to rethink its economic
development role
start to build a political consensus around
what is important, realistic and practicable.
The EU increasingly takes second place to
national interests for many Member States.
Germany has shown itself reluctant to bail out
weaker economies.
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The subsequent cuts in public budgets made by
governments have led to an increase in social
exclusion and the risk of poverty.
Growing joblessness, especially among the
young.
Growing number of people receiving social
benefits
reductions in wages as well as increasing
unemployment are squeezing household
income.
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Serious concerns have been raised about funding for the
Europe 2020 Strategy.
Ambitious targets will require significant investments.
There are no new funding instruments leaving the EU
budget as the sole source of funding.
At the same time, across the European Union, Member
States are tightening their budgets and cutting spending in
order to fight the crisis.
If the austerity measures put pressure on the European
budget, the combination of the lack of new funding
instruments and smaller budgets could jeopardise
implementation of the Strategy.