[FR] Europe 2020: the urgent need to involve policy makers

The debate on responsibility for steering the Europe 2020 strategy (assigned to the European Commission or the European Council), – which is crucial to prevent the non-binding nature of the strategy from once again resulting in such poor results as those achieved by the Lisbon Strategy – must not overshadow the other key issue in the governance of this strategy, namely its ownership by all stakeholders at national and local level.

Indeed, in all the reviews of the Lisbon Strategy, both at mid-term and in 2010, the lack of communication to familiarise stakeholders with the challenges of the strategy and involve them in the adaptation efforts was a recurring theme. The European Commission even refers to this as the “Achilles heel of the Lisbon Strategy”.