WIREDGOV

Yesterday Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, publishes a new flagship publication: Smarter, greener, more inclusive? - Indicators to support the Europe 2020 strategy1. This is the first of a new series of annual publications providing statistical analyses related to important European Commission policy frameworks or other phenomena in society. The purpose of this first publication is to provide statistics to support the Europe 2020 strategy and to back up the monitoring towards its headline targets. As Walter Radermacher, Director General of Eurostat, says in the foreword of the publication: “Impartial and objective statistical information is essential for evidence-based political decision-making and forms the basis of Eurostat’s role in the context of the Europe 2020 strategy”.

A broader picture of the headline indicators of the Europe 2020 strategy

The publication contains a chapter for each of the five headline indicators of the Europe 2020 strategy2 - on employment, research & development, climate change & energy, education and poverty & social exclusion. In each chapter, past trends are presented, covering the period since 2000 or 2005 to the latest data available3 (2011 or 2012). The purpose of the publication is not to predict whether Europe 2020 targets will be reached, but to help to understand the factors behind the changes observed so far in the headline indicators, by providing additional related statistics. Each chapter also links to various European Commission initiatives and reports which support the different areas.

Full press release