This paper looks at the ongoing debate within the European Commission on the EU 2020 strategy and in particular to the potential role of statistics-based knowledge in the strategy , and takes partly inspiration from a reflection on the Lisbon strategy for growth and jobs EU 2020 in the framework of the implementation of the European economic recovery plan. We highlight three shortcomings in the present (pre-EU 2020) use of statistical indicators which the present debate does not seem to address and which hence risk being perpetuated in their EU 2020 formulation:
- The paradox of the coexistence within the same European Commission of two holistic frameworks: the Structural Indicators and the Sustainable Development Indicators. One does not understand which of these two systems is taken to measure the overall policy performance of the Commission. The resulting dualism ¿ in the opinion of the authors - does not help the communication policy of the European Commission.
- A communication issue whereby the Lisbon strategy and its offspring EU 2020 are not communicated (Lisbon is to the average citizen the capital of Portugal) and are especially not communicated in relation to existing statistical indicators of good quality, against the opinion of academicians that transparency and accountability based on sound statistics favour democracy and participation and may be useful against citizens¿ and voters¿ apathy.
- The paradox that EU policy and its communication is mostly economic -- the financial crisis (the ¿crunch¿) and its management in relation to the health of public finances, and environmental (global change, carbon emission, post Copenhagen), and less to an EU social agenda. There is little emphasis in EU policy and communication on the challenge of inequality which might impact adversely on democratic participation and values.
We illustrate the reasons that lead us to see these points as problematic and offer suggestions on how these should be tackled. Without a change of course on these three challenges the debate on the selection of new indicators will very much risk being and internal European Commission business as usual.JRC.DG.G.9-Econometrics and applied statistic
