competitiveness strategy. The EP’s political leadership wants more

time to allow parliament to scrutinize the proposals set out by the

Commission and the Council.

The Parliament has the right to be consulted on European policies that govern employment. EU 2020 frames both its macro and micro economic goals in terms of employment, potentially allowing the parliament to discuss the entire document. As a result, if the European Parliament chooses to to do so, it could introduce a significant delay, potentially preventing adoption by the European Council, due in June, until the Autumn.

The competitive strategy is intended to introduce an EU wide platform,

to be adopted at a national level that will cover issues such as

greenhouse gas emissions, poverty reduction and employment rate.

EU 2020 is being referred to as ‘economic governance’ and as such

could present a unique challenge to the winner of the upcoming general

election in the UK. The UK election is being fought primarily on the

economic challenges facing the country, with the three main parties

presenting very different solutions to what they see as the main

challenges.

It could be that the next UK government that will be elected in May

will find its hands tied just a few weeks after the election if the

adoption of EU 2020 proceeds as scheduled. Although there would be no

punishment for failing to comply with the the guidelines set out in

the policy as the EU has favored the carrot over the stick in order to

entice member states to comply, failure to do so might cause the next

government to lose credibility within Europe.

Current UK polls point to the election resulting in a hung parliament

with David Cameron’s Conservatives forming a minority government with

the Liberal Democrats. The question then would be how to share power

and how to approach the final stages of EU 2020.  It might just be

that a delay in proceedings caused by the parliament reviewing the

proposed policy would grant the next UK government some breathing space

to get itself sorted out before it must formally adopt EU 2020.