On 17 July 2018, Eurostat published its most recent flagship publication “Smarter, greener, more inclusive? – Indicators to Support the Europe 2020 strategy”. The report monitors the EU’s progress towards the Europe 2020 targets in the areas of employment, R&D and innovation, climate change and energy, education, and poverty and social exclusion.

Markus Hametner, Mariia Kostetckaia and Renate Ruech from the Institute for Managing Sustainability coordinated the overall preparation of the report and were in particular responsible for drafting the analyses for the strategy targets on employment and R&D and innovation. The overall findings of the report show that the EU is on track towards the targets on employment (75% of the EU population to be employed by 2020), climate change and energy (20% reduction in GHG emissions, 20% share of renewable energies, and 20% improvement in energy efficiency) and education (reduction of school drop out rates to 10%, and 40% of young EU adults having tertiary education). In contrast, the targets on R&D and innovation (3% of GDP spent on R&D) and poverty reduction (20 million people lifted out of poverty by 2020) seem out of reach.

The report is available for download from the Eurostat website: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-statistical-books/-/KS-02-18-728