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The Lisbon Strategy and Europe 2020: Education as a Key Factor
The largely failed Lisbon Strategy and its follow-up agenda, Europe 2020, are known for their focus on economic growth, sustainability and knowledge-based objectives.
However, few people know that these strategies highlight higher education as a crucial factor.
It is universally known that economic growth – the main objective of all governments, especially after the economic crisis – is the key to fighting unemployment. This growth can be achieved either through increasing resources, labour, and/or capital, or through enhancing the productivity of existing resources. The recent financial crisis has shown the limits of monetary and fiscal policies. This is why productivity now comes in the spotlight. Improving knowledge and technology levels in an economy can raise productivity. Human capital – skills, training and expertise – enables people to work more effectively.
From vague to concrete: education goals of the EU
Education was already a part of the Lisbon Agenda, but failed to become one of its main pillars. Some of the targets included high-quality education in Europe were compatibility of higher education systems, access to life-long learning, EU-wide validation of degrees and increased cooperation with non-EU researchers. Unfortunately, these targets remained vague.
It is no mystery that the EU has limited competences in the area. Soft law and the open method of coordination dominate decision making. The European Commission monitors and measures implementation, but cannot do much more. Despite new plans to put the Council of Ministers in charge of the programme and to enable the Commission to come forward with “warnings”, education targets still collide too much with the member states’ sovereignty issues. For example, in a federal country such as Germany, the competences for education matters lie with the Bundesländer, who pushed the German government in March to call off talks on education within the Europe 2020 framework.
Within this new framework, five headline goals have been determined, among which education appears key. The number of early school leavers is supposed to shrink from 15 percent to under 10 percent. At least 40 percent of the young should have a degree by 2020. The inclusion of measurable targets is a positive effort. Several initiatives will be introduced soon such as the “Youth on the Move” programme that aims at increasing student mobility.
Clear targets are not enough
The inclusion of clear targets alone is far from assuring success. After all, the Lisbon Strategy also came forward with precise targets and objectives, but achieved little in the end. For the education targets to be met, a revision of EU and national competences is necessary. This, however, is very unlikely with the enhanced subsidiarity clause in the Lisbon Treaty. Education directly affects citizens of member states and thus falls directly into member state competence. Maybe, the scare of slow growth rates, very high unemployment rates in several member states, and the Euro crisis, will push member states to reconsider their approach to competences. If not, the EU is bound to lag behind, once again, in matters of education and innovation.
See also: Euro 2020: Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth
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