Wrapping up the Europe 2020 strategy: A multidimensional indicator analysis

• Main Authors: William Becker, Hedvig Norlén, Lewis Dijkstra, Stergios Athanasoglou
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2020-12-01
• Series: Environmental and Sustainability Indicators
• Subjects: Europe 2020; Composite indicator; Sustainable development; Regional analysis
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2665972720300593

The Europe 2020 Strategy was launched by the European Commission in 2010 to promote smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth across EU member states. As the strategy draws to a close in 2020 and is superseded by the Sustainable Development Goals and the Green Deal, this work aims to assess the progress made over the last decade, and to carry forward lessons for future endeavours. A composite indicator approach is adopted, which aggregates the distance of each country or region to politically-agreed targets. This allows a high-level summary of progress, but also examines detailed trends at national and regional levels, as well as by degree of urbanisation and by development. The results show that although the EU has moved forward as whole, some regions have lagged behind or even moved backwards, and within some countries, regions are moving further away from one another. Progress has been particularly strong in education, but more work is needed in the environmental dimensions.