Suchergebnisse

In 2009 the European Council published its Europe 2020 Strategy in which it fixed a number of social, educational and economic targets to be achieved by 2020. However, given the current economic crisis, the majority of European countries are struggling to attain these goals. In this framework, this study seeks to quantify the potential contribution of one of the most disadvantaged groups, Europe's disabled, to the attainment of the Europe 2020 Strategy targets via the monitoring of a number of indicators. The impact of changes in the situation of the disabled is simulated using micro data drawn from the 2009 European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions. Our results show that improving the socioeconomic situation of the disabled could be crucial for attaining the Europe 2020 targets. However, future policy designs at the national level will need to take into account the actual definition of disability that is employed, the heterogeneity of circumstances to be found within such a definition, and the gap between the situation of the disabled and non disabled populations.

The purpose of this article is to analyse the concept of good governance in the context of the implementation of the Europe 2020 Strategy. The analysis of the application of "good governance" in the implementation of the EU individual policies shows that it is an issue to which an important role from the point of view of grouping as a whole is assigned. As the crisis in the EU deepens, it becomes increasingly important. Meanwhile, the analysis of the state of "good governance" implementation in the aspect proposed by the EU indicates that the appropriate role was assigned to "good governance" at the level of strategic documents. The situation is different when it comes to the relation between "good governance" concept and its implementation in practice. It concerns not only the EU as a whole but also the individual countries such as Poland. Here, progress is mainly dependent on whether the implementation of a particular policy which is characterised by the relevant priorities and principles brings tangible benefits for national interests.

Abstract. The evaluation criteria to measure the efficiency of a state's economic policy in terms of integration processes in the European Union were determined in the Europe 2020 Strategy endorsed by the European Council in June 2010. According to the Strategy, the European Union has committed to seek progress in the fields of employment, investment in R&D, climate change and energy, education, and poverty reduction. With a view to assessing the economic impact of the above commitments by the European Union vis-a-vis small European Union countries, this article provides an evaluation of the three objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy – employment, education, and investment in R&D – and their impact on the economic growth in smaller countries of the European Union.This article concludes that many of the smaller European Union countries choose not to be ambitious enough in their national objectives of employment, education, and investment in R&D areas under the Europe 2020 Strategy and, during the 2011–2020 period, they show on average a 4.8% lower annual GDP growth than it could potentially be, i.e. they abandon far-reaching ambitious targets.Key words: economic policy, small European Union countries, Europe 2020 Strategy, employment, education, R&D

This book provides a unique study of the role of universities, as organisation systems, in the pursuit of the Europe 2020 strategy. While Europe 2020 focuses on creating the basis for the advancement and cohesion of the EU's member states, it also has an important role in influencing the development strategies for potential candidate states. In this regard, the book examines two new member states - Slovenia and Croatia - and two potential EU candidate states - Serbia and Kosovo - in the Western Balkans. Based on these cases, the author argues that the operationalization of the Europe 2020 strategy depends to a great extent of the role and contribution of tertiary organisations such as educational institutions, i.e. public and private universities, and therefore requires the formulation of an economic development strategy at the national level that is capable of duly allocating the available financial resources. The study suggests that the paradigm shift represented by Europe 2020 has helped to forge a new academic identity, adding to the relevance of university organisations as fundamental agents for the promotion of economic development; in addition, it shows that an intensive learning process involving major structural changes is underway in the four countries discussed, as well as many other EU member states.--

Europe 2020 tried to overcome the failures of the Lisbon Strategy. Goals set by the European commission were allowed to be adapted to take account of the starting position and the preferences of member countries ("national ownership"), the monitoring process was improved and the coordination between different policy strands institutionalized (in the European Semester), and "flagship initiatives" were aimed at initiating processes to support the strategy goals. Nevertheless halfway to the year 2020 the most important goals - the employment ratio, the reduction of poverty and research expenditure - seem to be out of reach. For the education goals the quantitative targets could be reached, but quality goals should also be monitored. The sustainability goals maybe attained because of the crisis driven stagnation in economic activity, but were set without ambition and they do not lead to a fair European contribution to limiting global warming to two degrees as envisaged in the "Energy Roadmap 2050". Neither can it be said that Europe sufficiently inverts becoming the world leader in clean technology or energy efficiency. We analyze the reasons for this underperformance and we address what urgent changes could help Europe come closer to achieving its targets by 2020. Finally we consider how economic policy should be shaped by a longer run vision of Europe's position in the globalized world of 2050 as put forward in the WWWforEurope project by a team of 34 European research groups and funded by the European Commission.

Abstract: Following an international comparative public policy approach, this paper compares the Brazilian logistic-state model and the new-developmental model, introduced by Latin-American authors, with the European Union's Europe 2020 Strategy. The paper develops three main arguments: (i) that a relation of commensurability can be established between the Brazilian logistic state-model, its associated new-developmental model and the Europe 2020 Strategy, (ii) that the establishment of such a relation has to take into consideration the distinctions between Brazil and the European Union which represent distinct forms of political organization; and (iii) that the European Union's Europe 2020 Strategy represents the European Union and its member-states as logistic regulators concerning state-society relations. The policy significance of both arguments is evaluated. The paper, building from an international comparative public policy perspective, focus on the policy and academic relevance of comparing three policy paradigms developed in different institutional settings but whose policy framework can be represented as commensurable.

A new model of economic development focused on the encouragement of smart, inclusive and sustainable economic growth is the core of the Europe 2020 strategy. Education is widely acknowledged as being a key factor leading to economic growth and economic development, in the long term. But the impact of different kind of achievements in education on growth has little empirical evidence, especially when examining the South-Eastern European countries. This paper analyses the role played by different types of educational achievements, aggregated at the macroeconomic level, beside a set of other potential socio-economic drivers, on the economic growth and quality of life, in the South Eastern Europe, based on the Eurostat panel dataset. A number of panel data regression models using the GMM and FGLS estimators allow answering our research questions. Our empirical results indicate what policy measures are the most effective to target both the economic growth and quality of life. ; peer-reviewed

Intro -- Foreword -- Foreword -- Preface -- Contents -- 1: Introduction: Purposes and Goals -- 1.1 International Trends -- 1.2 Purpose of the Book and Conceptual Framework: A Premise -- 1.3 The Working Hypothesis -- 1.4 Design and Methodology -- 1.5 The Structure of the Book -- Bibliography -- 2: Theoretical Studies on Content Analysis and Empirical Research -- 2.1 Theoretical Underpinnings of Socio-economic Development -- 2.2 Theories of Development: Positivism, Constructivism, Realism -- 2.2.1 Positivism -- 2.2.2 Constructivism -- 2.2.3 Realism -- 2.2.4 A Conceptual Analysis of Development -- 2.3 The Concept of Knowledge -- 2.3.1 The Role and Nature of Knowledge: Exploring the Concept -- 2.3.2 Knowledge and Its Definitions -- 2.3.3 Knowledge and Its Barriers to Its Access -- 2.3.4 Missed Development? Overcoming the Barriers -- 2.4 Social Capital and Social Cohesion in Policymaking -- 2.4.1 Social Capital Within the Paradigm of Community Governance -- 2.4.2 Social Cohesion: The Principle Applied to EU Development Policies -- 2.5 Social Learning as a Concept -- 2.5.1 Social Learning in Regional Science: A Focus on Regional Economics -- 2.5.2 Social Learning and the Evolution of the Social Capital Concept -- 2.5.3 Social Learning and Empirical Analysis: The State of the Art -- 2.6 Sustainability: Epistemology and Strategies -- 2.6.1 Capacity Building Approaches to Sustainable Development -- 2.6.2 In the Pursuit of Sustainable Development: The EU Agenda -- Bibliography -- 3: The EU Integration Process of the Western Balkan Countries -- Box 3.1 The Stabilisation and Association Process of Western Balkan Countries -- Box 3.2 EUROPE 2020: A Strategy for Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth -- 3.1 The Copenhagen Criteria -- 3.1.1 The Economic Accession: Second Copenhagen Criteria

Abstract
Aim of this paper is to analyse the behaviour of Czech MEPs in the topics related to Europe 2020 Strategy. This Strategy is one of the most important documents of recent decade on the European level and it is not so often studied on the level of the European Parliament. The purpose of this text is to find out if Czech political parties in the European Parliament are cohesive or not. The second question is related to the voting patterns, whether Czech MEPs create some kind of voting coalitions or not and if these coalitions reflect the national coalition. Methodology is based on the analyses of roll-call votes. The research period is the first two years of the 8th term of the European Parliament.

Nonformal education (NFE) and training is quite widespread in Europe nowadays, and is considered a tool for empowerment for youth and other individuals. Nonformal education was founded in the late 1960s as a response to the failure and limitations of formal systems, and was supposed to replace the bureaucracies practiced by such institutions within those. One of NFE's aims is to empower learners through achieving un-met learning needs, and programmes should be tailored to meet their own interests. Thus throughout the years, the values related to NFE have developed into a different dimension and its educational programmes have been employed to serve political agendas. It has also been attributed to economic and neoliberal discourses. Having said that, this study examines how NFE and the concept of empowerment evolved through critically analyzing discourses in the Europe 2020 Strategy. Since the EU's major objective is to become the most competitive knowledge-based economy of the world, the study will attempt to critically examine what influence does this objective have on youth empowerment, and whether NFE is being exploited to transfer the knowledge favored by the Strategy, thus contributing towards hegemonic ways of thinking and acting. The focus of this study is to reveal the power of language in policies and its influence on shaping empowerment, utilizing Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis as the methodology to help in analyzing the significant discourses in the Europe 2020 Strategy. Accordingly, two narratives were identified and analyzed: a Transformation narrative that bisects into two sub-narratives of 'Information Society' and knowledge transformation towards a 'Knowledge-Based Economy'. The second is an Adapting Skills narrative that has transformed the competencies of individuals to contribute to the former narratives. This has helped in exposing how ideologies and power through the language conveyed in the Strategy govern social change and youth's interest towards a collective educational pathway. This study argues that the policy lacks a critical approach, as it focuses its attention on building an information society that requires lifelong learners to be educated and empowered within certain domains. It could be noticed that it mobilizes educational programmes to promote determined objectives that marginalize other knowledge and competencies, also contributing to building 'class' and privileges among learners. Using Critical Theory and empowerment theory as the theoretical framework, suggests that transforming the society should result in improving the human condition, allowing not only for empowerment according to political interests, but most importantly for emancipation.

The European Union Cohesion Policy provides financial support through EU funds and gives a unique opportunity for member states and their regions to successfully combat the obstacles of a challenging environment as well as to promote its (smart, sustainable, inclusive) growth and development. In the last programming period of 2014-2020 the Policy has been aligned with the Europe's strategy for growth and employment, Europe 2020. The regional allocation of funding has changed, where a more focused thematic concentration of financial resources is needed. There are (constant) discussions about measuring the progress towards meeting the objectives of the Europe 2020 which is connected with the implementation of the Cohesion Policy. The aim of this paper is twofold: firstly, to give a brief overview of the connection between the reformed Cohesion Policy and strategy Europe 2020 in the last programming period of 2014-2020 and secondly, to empirically analyse whether the allocation of EU funds regarding different thematic fields of intervention can be connected with the success in the realisation of the strategy Europe 2020. The findings suggest that the heterogeneity in the realisation of Europe 2020 on a regional level is connected with the structure of EU funds allocation. The conclusions of this paper can be useful in monitoring the achievement of Europe 2020, in evaluating the results and possible recasting of the Cohesion Policy.