1.1.9 Europe 2020 Strategy

In response to the failure of the Lisbon strategy and to the financial crisis, on the 3rd of March of 2010 the European Commission launched, at the European Summit, the new Europe 2020 Strategy “A European strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth”. It contains a commitment to renew the EU strategy for the next decade and to promote CSR as a key element in ensuring long-term employee and consumer trust.1 The European Commission held that “This new strategy should enable the EU to make a full recovery from the crisis, and help speed up the move towards a greener, and more sustainable and innovative economy.”

The European Commission’ Lisbon Strategy evaluation document attempting to find some recognition of the positive impact of the Lisbon Strategy alerted that “Ultimately, the objective of the Lisbon strategy was to improve the pace and quality of reforms at national and European level”. There are great expectations for the Europe 2020 Strategy. The Lisbon Council argues that a new strategy should improve the transparency of reporting, communicate better with the public and focus more on the “drivers” of growth, such as skills and R&D, rather than outcomes, such as growth or employment.