European Council agreed on main elements of Europe 2020 Strategy

06 April 2010

EU leaders agreed to cooperate more on economic policy as part of a strategy to spur higher growth over the next decade.

 

The decision came at a meeting in Brussels, the leaders’ first formal discussions on the ‘Europe 2020’ strategy, introduced by the Commission last month.

In a joint statement, they said they had agreed on most elements of the proposed plan, including greater coordination of national and European economic policy. They said more economic cooperation was necessary to recover from the financial crisis and confront long-term challenges like globalisation, climate change and an ageing population. They also accepted three quantitative targets for increasing employment levels, boosting spending on research and development and meeting the EU’s environmental commitments. Two other targets proposed by the Commission – increasing education levels and social inclusion – will be fine-tuned at the June summit.

The conclusions of the 25/26 March European Council, including the ones on the Europe 2020 strategy, have been published at: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/113591.pdf

 

 

Please be informed that there is a new Europe 2020 website: http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020.

To obtain regular information on the developments regarding the Europe 2020 strategy, you can register to the newsletter at: EUROPE2020@ec.europa.eu