Friday, March 14, 2014
Executive (Omni Shoreham)
The Europe 2020 strategy, promising to reduce poverty by 20 million by 2020, appears to be in tatters: austerity programs increased the numbers of people in poverty by nearly 4 million in the last year, falling 8 million short of targets set by Member States (MS). Unemployment stands at 23.7%, with poverty affecting 120 million EU residents. Expecting to “download” socially inclusive EU policy values and goals to the member-states, EAPN members set out to engage in constructive dialogue with national governments as part of the Europe 2020/Semester process, believing that they would be welcomed as equal partners; however, the process is already in danger of being abandoned by stakeholders as an empty shell, turning its back on the very people it is supposed to represent. The key policy driver for the European Semester continues to be the Commission’s Annual Growth Survey (AGS) which underlined the need for continuity rather than change in 2013. This paper will show that the AGS continues to support the same five priorities, including ‘growth-friendly fiscal consolidation’ and tackling ‘unemployment and the social consequences of the Crisis’, with few new social or poverty-mitigation proposals. It will argue further that the loss of an explicit Annual Progress Report is a major setback, undermining the visibility and the credibility of the EU 2020 targets as a driver in the European Semester.
