Selected European Union Initiatives

I. EUROPE 2020 is the EU’s growth strategy for the coming decade.

In a changing world, we want the EU to become a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy. These three mutually reinforcing priorities should help the EU and the Member States deliver high levels of employment, productivity and social cohesion.

Concretely, the Union has set five ambitious objectives – on employment, innovation, education, social inclusion and climate/energy – to be reached by 2020. Each Member State has adopted its own national targets in each of these areas. Concrete actions at EU and national levels underpin the strategy.
Reaching the Europe 2020 goals

• Europe 2020 targets
• Flagship initiatives
• Role of the EU Member States

More information on Europe 2020 can be found here.

II. TRANSATLANTIC TRADE & INVESTMENT RELATIONS: JOBS & GROWTH INITIATIVE

Statement by EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht on the interim report of the EU-US High-Level Working Group on Jobs and Growth: “The announcement of Presidents Barroso and Obama welcoming the publication of the interim report on how to deepen the transatlantic trade relationship is extremely encouraging. We are now entering the last leg of mapping out how we should tackle any eventual negotiation to boost growth and jobs through our trade partnership. I look forward to continue working with my US counterpart to complete the final stage allowing us to present both leaders with the final report as quickly as possible.”

• Interim Report – EU-U.S. High Level Working Group on Jobs and Growth, 19 June 2012
• Joint Statement by U.S. President Obama, European Commission President Barroso and European Council President Van Rompuy after the G20 Summit in Los Cabos/Mexico, 19 June 2012

Also see our page on: What you need to know about T-TIP

III. HORIZON 2020

The Horizon 2020 programme has three main pillars:

• Societal challenges (includes investments in health, energy, transport, climate action and freedom and security research projects),
• Excellent science (includes grants to top-level individual researchers, and investments in future technologies and training for researchers), and
• Industrial leadership (includes investments in biotechnology and space technologies, access to risk finance and support for innovative small firms), and Support for small firms and energy

Horizon 2020, the EU’s €70.2 billion framework programme for research and innovation in 2014-2020, was approved by MEPs.  |VIDEO|

• Horizon 2020 research programme: more support for small firms and new players
• Horizon 2020 approval by Parliament a boost for European research and innovation
• More information on Horizon 2020

IV. COSME – Ensuring a Bright Future for European SMEs

Today COSME, the new programme for the competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), was presented by Antonio Tajani, Vice-President of the European Commission, responsible for industry and entrepreneurship.

SMEs are the back-bone of the European economy, being primarily responsible for economic growth and job creation. The new programme will give a fresh impetus to the European economy by easing access to credit for SMEs, improving SMEs access to markets inside and outside Europe and creating a favourable environment for SMEs.

COSME WEBSITE:
COSME. Europe’s programme for small and medium-sized enterprises. CLICK HERE

V. Digital Single Market

The EU is committed to unblocking the potential of the digital single market by tackling artificial boundaries, particularly geographic ones.
The goal is to open up access to consumers and businesses throughout the EU so that all can operate online under the same rules, conditions, and guarantees.

Download the EU Matters and learn more about the Digital Single Market