Europe 2020: a good business plan, but will it be implemented?

In the current economic climate, most small businesses in Europe are looking no further ahead than the end of the month or the quarter. But they know that Europe requires a radical and cohesive long-term reform agenda - and they are looking to policymakers to define and implement this agenda. 

The "Europe 2020" strategy - presented by the European Commission on 3 March - offers hope, on paper at least. Few would argue with the pursuit of knowledge, innovation, competitiveness, sustainability, employment and social cohesion.

For each of the five headline targets of Europe 2020, EUROCHAMBRES has proposals on how they can be delivered. 

1. A "Pact for Sustainable Employability". EUROCHAMBRES repeats its call for a 'Pact for Sustainable Employability' that should establish the framework for far more effective collaboration between training organisations, universities, businesses and public authorities to ensure that the provision of training responds to the results of skills forecasting. 

2. Linking R&D to business. Spending on research & development per se will not contribute to growth. R&D must respond to the needs of businesses, which in turn requires far closer links between business and the research community and radical changes in the governance and philosophy of academic institutes.

3. Energy efficiency. The '20-20-20' targets to fight climate change of course remain valid and should be integral to Europe 2020. As a short term measure, a forthcoming Chamber survey indicates that much more should be done to encourage small businesses and consumers to grasp the low hanging fruit of energy efficiency measures. This is a potential quick win that would deliver considerable economic and environmental benefits. 

4. Employability. Employability must be a key indicator of education systems. To this end, tertiary education must be more demand-driven and should embrace vocational education, which has become worryingly devalued in some parts of the EU. 

5. Employment to fight poverty. The most effective route to poverty reduction and social inclusion is employment, so businesses are key actors in reducing the poverty gap. There are 18 million job seekers in Europe, while 4 million vacancies remained unfilled last year. Designing tools that would 'match the unmatched' could cut unemployment by nearly a quarter overnight. However, these targets will prove meaningless if national governments do not pursue them rigorously through their domestic agendas. The real challenge is to ensure the acceptance by Europe's elected representatives - and, indeed, electorate - of the painful truth that reform is no longer simply an option, it is essential.

Thus, a sixth target has to be added, as a pre-requisite to the whole strategy's success:

6. Ensure governance. National budgets, priorities and actions must be regularly monitored, reviewed and adapted by the Council in line with the priorities and targets of Europe 2020.

Europe 2020 is a sound business plan for Europe. But it is worthless if not implemented.