Collective projects

Recent trends in nationalism, protectionism and regionalism are affecting international commitments and policies. They also put added pressure on the political and operational capacities of global governance institutions created in the mid-twentieth century for critical yet partly different purposes. This raises the prospects of shifts, including in responsibility, in global and transnational governance. The challenge is to identify coherent responses and to effectively coordinate their implementation with stakeholders.

Mainstream political parties are being increasingly perceived as not addressing adequately the challenges faced by the EU and its Member States. At the same time, support for populist parties, movements and ideas is on the rise. The challenge is to analyse the phenomenon of populism and its consequences for European democracies and the European project. In addition, innovative ways of understanding and addressing the causes of populism as well as strategies for strengthening democratic values and practices need to be identified.

Years after the crisis and near-zero interest rates, resilient economic growth is still low in Europe. Boosting economic growth requires concerted actions to simultaneously stimulate supply and demand side economic policies. From the supply side, the “productivity puzzle”, namely the deceleration of productivity growth despite technological advances, has regained the attention of policy and academic communities.

Horizon 2020 Framework Programme CLOSED

The development of cultural and creative industries (CCIs) is vital for a vibrant economy and as a means of revitalising EU regions. The CCIs employ 7.5% of the EU’s workforce and add around EUR 500 billion to GDP. CCIs also contribute significantly to youth employment and were remarkably resilient in the context of the economic crisis. However, they still do not benefit from the support of a comprehensive sectorial policy scheme in most Member States and Associated Countries or at the EU level.

Public institutions in Europe are increasingly challenged to find new ways to provide public value in an open, transparent way. In a growing number of small and large cities across Europe, citizens are engaged and mobilised to demonstrate their ability in creating innovative solutions for important social issues. The challenge is to capture the creativity of these local solutions and their potential opportunities, both from a social and a market perspective, including the potential for sustaining diverse and alternative economies, slow economies among them.

Tens of millions of people live in forced displacement, many of them in protracted refugee and displacement situations for long periods of time and even generations. This is often accepted, albeit reluctantly, as a semi-permanent state of affairs given that return as a solution to forced displacement rarely takes place. The situation affects life trajectories of displaced people and poses multiple challenges for social, economic, urban and environmental services and for local investments and labour markets.

At a time where the integration of refugee and migrant children into host societies is most pressing, education systems face multiple challenges due to growing cultural, linguistic and ethnic diversity and to socio-economic inequalities.

Global migration governance regimes are emerging. There is a pressing need to identify priority areas and strategies to facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility as foreseen in the Sustainable Development Goals of Agenda 2030 and the New York Declaration of 2016. The EU is involved in the global effort to design multilevel migration governance models applicable to the Union and to its Member States.