Malta has reached its 2020 target for employment, thanks to a steady increase in jobs since 2014, and for primary energy consumption, but it is not progressing as well as other member states on various other metrics, according to Eurostat.
Malta is now within three percentage points of having 33 per cent of 30-34 year olds with a tertiary education. The rate has been improving steadily between 2008 and 2017.
The island has also seen considerable improvement in reducing the number of early school-leavers, but it still has further to go to meet its target - 10 per cent - than other member states.
One of the most stubborn targets for Malta to meet is its greenhouse gas emissions, which increased by 20.3 per cent between 1990 and 2016, with the target increase set at 5 per cent.
The other is the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion, the only metric where the situation is actually deteriorating: it rose by 4.9 per cent between 2008 and 2016.
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The Europe 2020 strategy, adopted by the European Council in June 2010, is the European Union's agenda for jobs and growth for the current decade. As a main objective, the strategy strives to deliver high levels of employment, productivity and social cohesion in the member states, while reducing the impact on the natural environment. To reach this objective, the EU has adopted targets to be reached by 2020 in five areas: employment, research & development (R&D), climate change & energy, education and poverty reduction. These have been translated into national targets in order to reflect the situation and possibilities of each Member State to contribute to the common goal. |
The picture in the EU as a whole shows substantial progress since 2008, in the area of climate change and energy through the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. In recent years, the positive trend has however slowed down.
In the area of education, the EU is within reaching distance of both headline targets.
The most recent developments in R&D investment and poverty alleviation are less promising, while the EU’s employment target can be reached if the growth recorded over the past few years continues.