IEEP’s Andrea Illes and CEP’s Jorge Núñez presented their recent report on Financing Europe 2020 to the Temporary Ad Hoc Commission on the EU Budget of the Committee of the Regions highlighting the significant financing gaps related to the achievement of the goals of the strategy and the potential role of subnational budgets in financing the Europe 2020 strategy.

The study analysed the available investment needs estimates to finance the flagship initiatives of the strategy and assessed the European Commission’s often quoted €1.8 trillion estimate on investment needs for the implementation of the Europe 2020 strategy. The study found that the Commission’s figures can at best be considered as a very rough estimate and overall it appears too low as numerous areas are not included.

The study also analysed the relative importance of subnational budgets in financing of the Europe 2020 Strategy. This assessment confirmed the potential role of local and regional authorities in financing the strategy and highlighted the considerable funding gap that needs to be filled by private funding sources if the 2020 goals were to be reached.

Finally, the study identified opportunities how the new governance structure linked to the European Semester can be used to improve the financing of Europe 2020.

More about the event can be found here.