05 December 2024 – The new Von der Leyen II Commission, which took office yesterday, is tasked with leading a shift towards a greener, more secure, and competitive EU economy. On the first day after inauguration, the Systems Transformation Hub – a pioneering partnership of thought-leading organisations involved in systems change and sustainability – presents five recommendations to the European Commission to set the EU on a path towards a resilient economy that respects planetary boundaries.
The EU needs to embark on its most ambitious implementation programme since the development of the Single Market. With geopolitical tensions rising, growing social inequality, and climate crisis touching the lives and livelihoods of European citizens directly, the EU must act to implement transformative change towards an economy that works for people, instead of the other way around.
The Hub’s roadmap provides a systems-based approach to policymaking that delves into the complex interplay of economic realities, political priorities, and social imperatives that need to be at the core of a coherent set of policies to deliver a thriving economy for European citizens.
The policy brief ‘Building a Secure and Thriving Europe: A Systems Approach to the 2024-2029 EU Strategic Agenda’ is the latest in our series by the Systems Transformation Hub. With this extended brief, the STH sets out key policy recommendations for 2024 – 2029:
- Adopt a provisioning systems approach: Europe must focus on maximising the economy’s ability to meet human needs and respect planetary boundaries. A shift is required to complement GDP with broader wellbeing metrics in all EU economic and fiscal assessments, such as the European semester. For this, resource efficiency needs to be coupled with demand side approaches, and decarbonisation with dematerialisation.
- Implement an integrated value-based industrial strategy: Europe’s competitiveness depends on leveraging its strengths in people, places and dematerialisation through the Industry 5.0 framework. This involves creating enabling conditions for ‘champion ecosystems’ that sit at the nexus between multiple systems to thrive, such as creating lead market conditions with Horizon Europe Missions.
- Develop an EU land-use strategy for resilience: A systemic approach is needed to balance competing demands across the various needs for land use. Such a strategy goes beyond a coherent legislative framework on agriculture and nature, to include aspects of water, nutrients, energy and spatial planning. A holistic, regenerative approach to land use and bioregions across Europe, and international partnerships to foster intercontinental biodiversity corridors, would position Europe as a global leader and ensure critical security and safety measures in the face of climate effects.
- Transform education and leadership to drive transformative change: To unlock human ingenuity’s full potential, the EU must transform its approach to education and capacity building. This transformation requires establishing and enhancing lifelong education while breaking down barriers across all educational levels to expand access to knowledge. New teaching and innovation methods are essential to retain Europe’s vital talent pool. This includes developing leadership competencies for current and future decision makers, as well as fostering cross-university programs and academic partnerships between Member States and beyond Europe’s borders.
- Modernise EU governance to meet the challenges of the 21st Century: Current fragmented governance can be improved through cross-sectoral policy implementation roadmaps, strengthened multi-level governance, and accelerated Single Market integration. Market signals also need to be aligned with regulatory pressures to reduce bureaucracy. For example, by placing a value on externalities and shifting the tax burden from social and environmentally beneficial activities towards those related to resource extraction and consumption.
“We envision a future where human wellbeing takes centre-stage, supported by optimising the economy within planetary boundaries. In the near and long term future, Europe should be more resilient to the polycrisis of growing conflict and international tensions, cost of living and rising inflation, climate change, and biodiversity loss”, say the leaders of the Systems Transformation Hub. “Our evidence-based policy paper lays out a Europe where people thrive in an economy that values innovation, health, education, and nature as much as GDP growth and where they have the space to invest in healthy relationships and communities within planetary boundaries.”
The Systems Transformation Hub’s policy paper entitled ‘Building a Secure and Thriving Europe: A Systems Approach to the 2024-2029 EU Strategic Agenda’ will be presented to the Commission next week.
