Europe 2020 Strategy and Citizens' Life Satisfaction

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyse whether the Europe 2020 Strategy approach might guide policymaking toward citizens' life satisfaction. We find that the Member States closer to attaining the Europe 2020 targets report higher levels of satisfaction. That is, Europe 2020 Strategy, as a set of public policies, is aligned with people’s life satisfaction. In addition and given the current context of rising economic and social inequalities in the European Union and their negative consequences for people's well-being, we study whether an "inequality-extended Europe 2020 Strategy", incorporating more specific targets for inequalities, is more aligned with European's life satisfaction. Results show that inequality-extended Europe 2020 Strategy is more associated with life satisfaction than Europe 2020 Strategy. Thus, inequalities do matter to European citizens and a refinement of the Europe 2020 Strategy could enhance the effectiveness of its programs.