Michael Mullins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In deputising for my colleague, Senator Noone, I welcome the Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs to the House and compliment him on the excellent work he is doing and on his superb efforts in promoting our country abroad. As he outlined, Europe 2020 is the European Union's ten year jobs and growth strategy. It was launched in 2010 to create the conditions for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, at a time of practically zero growth throughout Europe when many economies were still moving in the wrong direction.

At the commencement of the Europe 2020 process back in 2010, five headline targets were agreed for the EU to achieve by the end of 2020. These covered employment, research and development, energy, education, and social inclusion and poverty reduction. All of these are important to each European member state, none more so than Ireland.

The European Commission held a public consultation on the strategy between May and October 2014, and published the results this month. The results of this consultation will form part of how the Europe 2020 strategy should be taken forward as, naturally, things can change over the course of ten years, and the halfway point marks a good time for reflection on achievements to date and potential changes in course over the coming five years.It is intended that proposals to review the strategy will be presented before the end of 2015.

In particular, the strategy has served as a guide for the design and programming of the European Structural and Investment Funds over the period 2014 to 2020, and it is in this context that we can easily see a number of important applications for Ireland. In the consultation period, 755 contributions were received from 29 countries. There are four main outcomes from this. First, Europe 2020 is seen as a relevant overarching framework to promote jobs and growth at EU and national levels. Its objectives and priorities are meaningful in the light of current and future challenges. The second outcome is that the five headline targets represent key catalysts for jobs and growth and help to keep the strategy focused. Furthermore, most of the flagship initiatives have served their purpose, yet their visibility has remained weak. I fundamentally agree that most people still have not heard of Europe 2020, let alone the aspirations, mechanisms employed or intended goals. There is a big public relations job to be done in this regard. This is a clear area for improvement, and a matter to which I will refer. The final outcome from the consultation is that it is believed there is scope and a need to improve the delivery of the strategy through enhanced ownership and involvement on the ground.

There is no question that, half way to the 2020 deadline, the delivery of the jobs and growth objectives is mixed across Europe, notably owing to the impact of the crisis. However, in an Irish context, there has been a notable number of achievements, not least our sustained reduction of the unemployment rate, in respect of which we moved from far beyond the European average to below it. Our rate is still decreasing at an average of 6,000 people per month.

Ireland's level of youth unemployment, while still too high, is far lower than that in Portugal, Spain and Italy. This is as a consequence of our domestic programmes, such as the Action Plan For Jobs, being designed to augment and dovetail neatly with the Europe 2020 programme. One successful initiative I am happy has been successful to date is the Youth Guarantee scheme, which was piloted on the north side of Dublin, and I hope to see it rolled out elsewhere throughout the country.

On the social front, the crisis has led to increased exposure to poverty and social exclusion and rising inequality. We see this less in Ireland than in other nations because our tax system is designed to flatten the inequalities. This was glossed over very much in the recent TASC report, which received a lot of coverage. While poverty, social exclusion and inequalities are issues on which we still need to work extremely hard if we are to tackle them, we should note the circumstances in other European countries have been far worse.

One of the aspects of the Europe 2020 headline targets that seems to have caught the public imagination concerns the moves towards the Europe 2020 headline targets on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Despite the crisis there have been positive structural trends, for instance, in education levels, building a more sustainable energy mix and the reduction in the carbon intensity of the economy. As a consequence, the European Union is on course to meet or closely approach its targets on education, climate and energy, although it is clear that we still have a distance to go in Ireland, and there is still work ahead to reach our Europe 2020 targets.

This is not the case with employment, research and development, and poverty reduction, regarding which the impact of the crisis has been most acutely felt. In all areas, it is clear that efforts need to be sustained to consolidate progress and make further advances. One of the main reasons the targets on greenhouse gas emissions reduction and the use of renewable energy are often highlighted is that the regulations are supported by a legally binding framework at EU level, including values to be reached at national level.

Growing divergences across and often within member states have hampered progress towards the Europe 2020 targets. The crisis has led to a growing gap between the best and least well-performing member states, instead of the desired convergence of economies. In 2013, for example, the employment rate varied from 52.9% in Greece to 79.8% in Sweden. Ireland is above Greece in this respect but not yet at the level of Sweden.

One point worth noting is that there is overwhelming support for an EU strategy in favour of jobs and growth. A large majority, or 86%, of the respondents consider that Europe needs a comprehensive and overarching medium-term strategy for jobs and growth for the coming years. It is interesting that 86% of respondents have positive views on an EU strategy in favour of jobs and growth. This is a very high number, although it is perhaps symptomatic of the self-selecting nature of participants and not entirely indicative of the public as a whole. Nevertheless, in this context it is perhaps worth noting the European Commission's own Eurobarometer survey, carried out among European citizens, clearly shows a positive shift in attitude for the first time since spring 2011.

The image of the European Union continues to improve. A majority of Europeans have a positive image of it. The proportion in this regard is 39%, which is up four percentage points since spring 2014. Some 37% have a neutral image, representing a decrease of one percentage point, and just 22% have a negative image, representing a decrease of three percentage points. This is the third consecutive time that the proportion of Europeans with a positive image of the EU has increased. As a consequence, the proportion of Europeans for whom the EU conjures up a positive image exceeds the proportion with a neutral image for the first time since the Eurobarometer survey of spring 2011.

The successful implementation of the strategy has been affected by weaknesses in terms of awareness. I referred to that at the outset. First, the contributions to the public consultation point to an awareness gap regarding the strategy. I am sure the Minister of State will continue to work on this. I wish him continued success. I share some of the concerns expressed by Senator Leyden on the implications of the referendum in the United Kingdom. The Minister of State, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Taoiseach and everybody else will be doing everything possible to convince those in the United Kingdom of the importance of remaining within the European Union.