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EU unveils new blueprint, receiving mixed responses

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European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso holds a news conference at the EC headquarters in Brussels March 3, 2010. Barroso outlined his goals on Wednesday for growth and jobs in the 27-country European Union. [Xinhua photo]

The European Union (EU) on Wednesday unveiled a 10-year blueprint for reviving the economic growth in the 27-nation bloc, only to receive mixed responses.

Critics doubt whether the new plan, named the EU 2020 Strategy, can work.

An urgent need

"The Europe 2020 is about what we need to do today and tomorrow to get Europe back on track," European Commission President Jose Barroso told a press conference.

The new plan is supposed to replace the Lisbon Strategy, a 10-year blueprint adopted in 2000, which was seen to have failed to meet its target to transform the EU into the "the most competitive knowledge-based economy" by 2010.

Badly hit by a global economic crisis starting in 2008, the EU's economy contracted by 4 percent last year and the jobless rate reached a record high of 9.5 percent.

Barroso said that the EU was already falling behind before the crisis and that the crisis exposed "fundamental weaknesses and unsustainable trends" that could not be ignored any longer."

"There is a real sense of urgency in this economic strategy that we are presenting today," he said.

The president said that increased economic interdependence demanded a more determined and coherent response at the political level. "That clearly makes the case for a stronger economic governance in the EU," he said.

Innovation, green economy prioritized

The new strategy will focus on education, innovation, labor mobility and green economy. It also sets concrete aims, such as raising the employment rate from the current 69 percent to 75 percent and increasing research and development investment from below 2 percent to 3 percent of the EU's gross domestic product (GDP).

Research and development spending is 2.6 percent in the US and 3.4 percent in Japan.

"Our smaller share of high-tech firms explains half of our gap with the US," the European Commission said in a statement.

The commission added that smart growth means strengthening knowledge and innovation as drivers of future growth.

In Europe 2020, the EU also promised to reduce its carbon emissions by 20 percent compared to 1990 levels and increase the share of renewable energy sources in final energy consumption to 20 percent.

New greener technologies can stimulate growth, create as many as 400, 000 new jobs by 2020, and help the EU meet climate change goals, according to the commission.

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