EUROPEAN COUNCIL : LEADERS FOCUS ON 2020.

EU leaders spared no time emerging from the snow-covered Bibliotheque Solvay in Brussels, on 11 February, to announce a decision had been taken on Greece, no doubt to get down to talks on the EU's long-term economic future. While it was crucial to assure markets that the government in Athens would not be left to flounder in a sea of debt (see separate article), the summit was originally convened by European Council President Herman Van Rompuy in January to flesh out the EU's 2020 strategy for growth and jobs, the successor to the failed Lisbon strategy.

Lisbon has been roundly panned for not being able to deliver on its two headline aims of 70% employment and a 3% of GDP requirement for research and development spending. The deadline for reaching the targets was this year and by 2008 only eight member states had reached the employment goal, while two - Sweden and Finland - hit the research target.

But the financial crisis put paid to even meagre Lisbon gains, with EU unemployment now hitting 10%, growth dipping 4% of GDP in 2009 and industrial production down 15% to 1999 levels. Public deficits and debt are on the rise as governments try to finance extra crisis spending, which amounted to over 5% of the bloc's GDP in 2009 and 2010. The replacement for Lisbon, what Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso is now calling Europe 2020', "cannot be business as usual". Barroso writes in a position paper released ahead of the summit, "We need a step change in the effectiveness and delivery of the new strategy, designed to raise sustainable growth and create jobs that we need".

Barroso suggests three main targets for the new strategy: R&D spending, employment and green' growth. Leaders will discuss exact numbers at a March summit, but they will be different for each member state. Five is the magic number for Van Rompuy, who highlights education and poverty reduction as possible goals in his programme for jobs and growth, which he presented to EU leaders, on 11 February. His seven steps for success include reducing to under 24 the number of guidelines to help member states achieve the targets; identifying bottlenecks in the old Lisbon strategy; beefing up annual progress reports from...