Europe 2020

Next steps/outlook

Now that EU-wide targets have been set, the key priorities now are to implement the targets and to specify the national contributions that have not yet been determined. For Germany and many other member states, this involves the contributions pertaining to the social inclusion, energy efficiency and education targets, which were defined later than the other targets.

Up to now, specific national targets were to be stipulated within the national reform programmes of member states, which were originally to be submitted in autumn 2010. In these national reform programmes (or NRPs) - which are based on rules set forth in the EU Treaty - member states specify their reform targets in accordance with the EU strategy, together with the measures they intend to implement in order to meet these targets. However, because the timing of (i) financial policy supervision under the EU Stability and Growth Pact and (ii) multilateral economic policy surveillance are to be co-ordinated in the future, the submission of the NRPs has been postponed until spring 2011. In the current transition period, it is likely that progress reports on national targets (quantities and corresponding implementation policies) will be presented this autumn.