Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)

It is widely acknowledged that the Lisbon strategy, predecessor to Europe 2020, was a disaster in that its targets were not met with no mechanism in place to bring into line those member states which failed to achieve them. The Minister referred to the targets set by Europe 2020, such as an employment rate of 75% which is very ambitious. The target of 3% of GDP for investment in research and development is the same as the one set ten years ago which was not met then. It is difficult to identity what can give us confidence that this 3% target will be met by the Europe 2020 strategy.

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