This afternoon the Committee hosted an extraordinary meeting bringing together the members of two of its specialised sections (SOC and ECO) and of its steering committee on the Europe 2020 strategy to consider the theme of overcoming the crisis: towards a policy programme for sustainable recovery. As government crises raged in Greece and Italy and the eurozone’s problems spooked the markets, it could have been argued that facing up to those challenges overshadowed all other priorities. But the message I took away from those parts of the meeting that I was able to attend was that even if we are currently sailing through a storm we should not lose sight of our port of destination nor of the route we wish to take to get there. In other words, the Europe 2020 strategy, with its emphasis on sustainable growth, highly educated workforces and the maintenance of social solidarity remains entirely pertinent. The reinforcement of economic governance may be a necessity, but it is not an end in itself.
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