On 25th-26th March, Heads of State and Government will gather in Brussels to discuss the priorities and headline targets for the EU 2020 Strategy. While the Strategy focuses on the EU economy, the Spring Alliance insisted that it should be coherent with other EU policies and look at its impact outside of Europe.

The Spring Alliance wrote to EU leaders, reacting to the Commission’s proposal and making recommendations on their headline targets, based on the Spring Alliance Manifesto.

John Hontelez, Secretary General of the EEB, explained: “We are pleased the Strategy looks at global warming and resource scarcity constraints. But to make real progress towards a sustainable economy the EU needs to set clear targets for reducing energy and resource use, and substantially increase the ambitions for fighting climate change.”

From 2010 on, leaders must prioritise investment in a transformative programme which would deliver new industrial policies and an economy based on less carbon, less energy and resource use, and with more and better jobs and services contributing to sustainable development.

This means leaders must develop within a year specific targets on improving public services, social protection and quality of jobs. They must also find new ways of raising public funds, such as using Financial Transaction Taxes and Eurobonds, harmonise capital gains taxation, and shift at least 10% of the revenue or tax-base away from labour to environmental pressures, resource use and capital.

As Joël Decaillon, Deputy General Secretary of the ETUC explained: “There is an urgency to attack from 2010 the root causes of the current unsustainable development that led to the crisis we are going through, and to adopt immediate economic recovery plans coordinated with a longer term program.”

Conny Reuter, President of Social Platform, said: “It’s a huge achievement that, after years of campaigning from our sector, poverty reduction has finally been recognised as an EU priority. But the proposed target, to reduce the number of people living below national poverty lines by 25%, is only a first essential step towards the eradication of poverty. We therefore call on Member States not only to adopt the target during the Spring Summit, but also to commit to strengthen the whole of Europe’s social infrastructures – particularly social protection systems and the universal access to public services.”

The Alliance noted that European policies have impact on other countries that might create a vicious poverty circle. Meagen Baldwin, CONCORD Policy Manager, said: “The EU must recognise that its internal policies have external effects – and as a global leader, it needs to ensure that its policies do not undermine sustainable development in developing countries.”

The Spring Alliance was pleased that measurable headline targets were present in the Strategy, but noted that they should be more detailed to truly reflect the main themes of EU 2020. The Spring Alliance said it will continue to monitor the implementation of the 2020 Strategy.