The Member States’ Willingness and Capabilities

In this chapter we investigate the Member States’s actions in delivering the Europe 2020 Strategy. We have already analysed the governance mechanisms of Europe’s multi-level governance system and the issue of political leadership in relation to the Europe 2020 strategy. Both Chaps. 4 and 5 left some matters unfinished, including the contribution of Member States to delivering the Europe 2020 Strategy. One aspect we wanted to follow up on was whether the strategy might have been delivered partially on the basis of a voluntary system of alignment of national visions, priorities, and strategic targets. In other words, Member States might have voluntarily adjusted national strategies. This would be a strategic system based on self-alignment of the constituent Member States. It would have meant, in the light of our earlier findings, that Member States would have probably provided the necessary leadership and monitoring of their delivery of the Europe 2020 Strategy on the basis of national initiative and action.