Coordinating the effort\nof EU member states was a crucial element in the success of the Europe 2020\nstrategy. To ensure this, The EU targets were interpreted into national level\nto reflect each member’s current situation and the level of aspirant they are\nable to reach as a portion of the EU whole effort to deliver Europe 2020. Moreover,\nthe European Commission has also set up the European semester, an annual cycle\nof economic policy coordination that aimed mainly to foster structural reform,\ninsure growth stability, and to prohibit excessive macroeconomic imbalances in\nthe EU. The cycle included an annual growth survey, mechanism reports,\npublication of country reports, fact finding mission for the member states and\nsubmission of the national reform programs, and council discussions on country\nspecific recommendations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The European Commission\ncarried out a number of evaluation reports on the EU cohesion policy which\nuntil 2010 concentrated on improving economic, social and environmental conditions\nwithin the European Union. The evaluations concluded that it would be more\neffective to focus on a few key priorities such as resources especially in the\nmore developed regions because it will allows not only the member states but\nalso the EU regions to build up a tangible impact through starting programs\nthat identify a fixed number of policy preferences with a clear comprehension to\nhow they will be achieved and how their achievement would contribute to the\neconomic, social and territorial development of the EU regions and Member\nStates[1]. At this point the importance of the Smart Specialization Strategies\n(S3) principle got more recognized by the European Commission because it aims\nto boost growth and jobs in Europe, by enabling each region to identify and\ndevelop its own competitive advantages and to manage a priority-setting process\nin line with national and regional innovation strategies[13]. The S3 principle\nrepresents a productive example of interaction between science and policy and\nwas initially developed by the Expert Group \u2018Knowledge for Growth\u2019 in 2008\nbased on the innovation system research and theory applied at the level of\nregional systems of innovation (RIS) to enhance and\nincorporated regional economic transformation as a key principle of investment\nin research and innovation in the overall framework of strategy Europe 2020.\nThe first progress into this direction was publishing the\n\u201cGuide on Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialization\u201d In May\n2012 which contains basic terms and principles to be followed in designing the\nsmart specialization strategies. The next milestone was to work on the\nImplementing of the S3 principle taking into considerations the necessity of\nbeing pragmatic about it, namely building on policy-makers\u2019 needs and on\nfield evidence; being useful, meaning to create a relevant supporting tool; And\nbeing executive, by providing practical suggestions that can be immediately\napplicable. The implementation of research and innovation strategies was\nconsidered as an important step and key driver for the achievement of Europe\n2020 strategy objectives by the EU policymakers from a regional perspective [7].\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 2010, a fundamental\nprogress and conclusive growth has been made in many areas including climate\nchange through the increase in the use of renewable energy sources and the reduction\nin greenhouse gas emissions, as well as in the sphere of education where the EU\nis within reaching distance of their headline targets, but on the other hand the\nprogress is less promising in developments of R&D investment and poverty reduction.\nThe analysis in 2018 edition of \u2018Smarter, greener, more inclusive?\u2019 showed that\nthe EU\u2019s employment goal can still be reached if the growth recorded over the\npast few years continues. The highest employment rate since 2002 was recorded\nin 2017 at 72.2% up from 71.1% in 2016 and in 2.8 percentage points from the\n75% strategy target. This rate also exceeded most non-EU G20 economies in the\nworld in 2017, except from Japan and Australia. Regarding the employment group\nages, the highest rate was recorded for people between 30 to 54 while the rate\nwas lower for young people from 20-29. Group (aged 55 to 64) although their\nemployment rate has grown continuously over the last decade, but it has\nremained low compared to younger age groups. Also from gender perspective, even\nthough the employment gap has narrowed for all age groups since 2002 and in\n2017 was at 11.5 percentage points, however the women employments rate remains\nlower than men[10].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gross domestic\nexpenditure on research and development (R&D) as a percentage of GDP has\nslightly progressed between 2008 and 2012, reach 2.04% in 2015 and has\nstagnated around 2.03% of GDP since then. By 2016 the EU was with 0.97\npercentage points below its target for 2020 and in order to deliver the 3% of\nGDP final strategy goal a combined public and private R&D expenditure was\nneeded taking into considerations that business enterprise share of the R&D\nperforming sector in the EU account for 64.9% of total R&D expenditure\nwhile The shares of \u2018higher education\u2019 and \u2018government\u2019 sectors contribute less\nto the total R&D expenditure, at 23.0% and 11.2%, respectively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EU emissions of\ngreenhouse gases (GHG) had fallen to 22.4% By 2016, compared with 1990 levels which\nindicate that the EU is expected not only to reach but also to exceed its target\nof reduction GHG emissions to 20% by 2020[12]. The industrial sector share of\ntotal emissions reduction was the largest in 2016 even though it was still\nresponsible of the most emissions in absolute terms over the time period\nbetween all sectors. Moreover the EU\u2019s GHG levels of emissions per capita were much\nlower than the levels observed in major economies such as Australia, Canada and\nthe United States, in addition to a significant progresses regarding the\nrenewable energy was achieved especially in Transport and electricity sectors\nby using the bio-fuel (Solid, liquid and gaseous) that provided the biggest\nshare of total renewable energy used in transportation, and for heating and\ncooling in the EU, and hydropower which remains the dominate technology in\nelectricity sector; furthermore, the shares of solar and wind energy have\nraised essentially in the last decade. The share of renewable energy in gross\nfinal energy production was 17.0% by 2016 only 3.0 percentage points from the\nEurope target of 20% by 2020 and relatively high Comparing to other emerging\nand industrialized economies in the world. Also a visible progress was made\nregarding the 20% energy efficiency objective. The EU had significantly reduced\nprimary energy consumption by 10% in 2016 less than in 2005 and globally only\nJapan had better results than EU by consuming 18.4% less energy in the same\nyear[11]. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most important\nheadlines of Europe 2020 was focusing on education. This target included: 1)achieving\nless than 10% of early school leavers between 18-24 year old especially for men\nbecause they are more likely to leave education earlier than women adding that\nearly leavers face crucial problems in labor market and have big probabilities\nto stay inactive or unemployed; 2) increase the share of 30-34 year old who\nhave completed tertiary education to 40%. Since 2008 the rate of early leavers\ndropped from 14.7% to 10.6% by 2017 and the share of people with high education\nimproved reaching 39.9%, which indicate that Europe is steadily approaching its\neducational target even though it still have a gap with some major economies\nlike USA, Canada, and Korea in that area[12].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strategy Europe 2020\naims to reduce the number of People at risk of poverty or social exclusion by\n20 million till 2020 through focusing on: 1) the three commune forms of\npoverty: monetary poverty, very low work intensity, and severe material\ndeprivation; 2) and The most exposed groups to the all three dimensions of\npoverty, in other words young people, unemployed and inactive persons, single\nparents, people with low educational, foreign citizens born outside the EU, and\nthose residing in rural areas. The EU witnessed high growth of risk of poverty\nin the in the last decade due to the delayed social effects of financial\ncrisis, namely almost every fourth person (23.5% of the population) in the EU\nremained at risk in 2016, about 86.9 million people, representing 17.3% of the\ntotal EU population, were at risk of monetary poverty while 39.1 million or\n10.5% were affected by the second most common dimension of poverty the very low\nwork intensity, and 37.8 million people equaled 7.5% of the total population in\nthe EU were suffering from the third form of poverty or social exclusion severe\nmaterial deprivation leaving the EU behind the strategy target by 20.7 million\npeople. Thus, Significant additional efforts are necessary to close this gap by\n2020 [12].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Economic growth, social\ncohesion and environmental protection along with a systemic change in policy\nagenda were the long-term objectives of strategy 2020 in which all the three above\nmentioned spheres go hand in hand and are mutually reinforcing in regional and\nstate levels. The strategy 2020 delivered its targets in most areas especially\nin reducing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) to 20% compared to 1990 levels\nand increasing the share of renewable energy in\nfinal energy consumption to 20%, also in education by decreasing school\ndrop-out rates to less than 10% and increasing the share of the population aged\n30-34 having completed tertiary education to 40%, and in employment by increasing\nthe employment rate of the population aged 20-64 to 75%. However, much less\nsuccess was found in the other two objectives: risk of poverty with a gap of\n20.7 million people from the target set and spending on R&D with 0.97\npercentage points below its target for 2020, thus a significant efforts are\nneeded to close those gaps until the end of the strategy time period. Moreover,\non the international level the EU 2020 strategy plays an important role in\naddressing the adopted 2030 Agenda by world leaders at the United Nations in\nSeptember 2015 for Sustainable Development “Transforming our world”, the\nagenda is a set of 17 guidelines with 169 associated goals on development and\nthus sitting the EU on the right direction towards achieving a sustainable\nfuture by shaping its internal and external policies, research and innovation\nprograms to balance a good standard of living for all Europeans, within the\nlimits of our planet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/p>\n\n\n\n