Framework of Strategic Management Model for Strategy Europe 2020: Diachronic Analysis and Proposed Guidelines

Since the beginnings of 1957, the European Union has always been aimed at promoting the development and cohesion of the Member States. Competitiveness as well as sustainable development have therefore long been focal points among strategic goals of the European Union. These goals were therefore documented in some strategies, namely European Single Market programme, the Lisbon Strategy and the Europe 2020. The Lisbon Strategy was aimed at turning the European Union into the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion by 2010. However, it was obvious that the Lisbon goals have not been achieved and a new strategy, Europe 2020, was hence initiated. Many Lithuanian and foreign authors analyzed (Tamosiuniene et al., 2007; Daugeliene, 2008; Grybaite, Tvaronaviciene, 2008; Melnikas, 2008; Tvaronaviciene et al., 2008; Martinkus et al., 2009; Kirch, 2010; Balezentis et al., 2010) the situation of Lithuania and other Baltic states in a global economic system during the processes of globalization and European Union (EU) integration. However, the need for the evaluation of the Lisbon Strategy's outcomes and proposal of guidelines for ongoing strategy Europe 2020 is still topical. Hence this study focuses on the improvement of the open method of co­ordination and thus the implementation of strategy Europe 2020 by integrating quantitative methods with respect to the experience gained during the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy. This study is aimed at proposing a framework for a strategic management model dedicated to successful implementation of the new strategy Europe 2020. This article is organized in four sections according to the following tasks defined in order to achieve the aim: 1) to overview main the strategies dedicated to promoting competitiveness of the European Union, namely the Lisbon Strategy and strategy Europe 2020; 2) to assess efforts of the EU Member States in seeking Lisbon goals applying multi-criteria evaluation method MULTIMOORA; 3) to evaluate reliability of selected structural indicators applying multiple correspondence analysis; and 4) to summarize the proposed guidelines for the new strategy Europe 2020 according to the results of this study and other works. The novelty of this study lies in the fact that it introduces the application of multi-criteria decision making methods in EU policy making procedures. Multi-criteria evaluation method MULTIMOORA as well as multiple correspondence analysis were the most important methods of the research. Analysis of EU Member States performance in the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy resulted in describing three groups of states and structural indicators: high performance group, medium performance group, and low performance group. Moreover, indicators of youth education attainment level, business investment and employment rate of older workers, are not highly correlated with economic performance of certain Member States and therefore can be regulated uniformly at the European level. These findings can be considered as the premises for successful EU-level targets translation into those for certain groups of countries. The synthesis of proposals for target-setting and transformation methodology resulted in framework for strategic management model dedicated to successful implementation of strategy Europe 2020. The model should encompass: 1) selection of targets for the EU, certain groups of states and separate Member States; 2) mutual learning enabling to transfer the best practice among member States; 3) development of appropriate structural indicators, equally identifying all dimensions of sustainable development; 4) benchmarking (selectonovation) principles applied for an effective distribution of EU support among Member States. Multi-criteria methods (e. g. MULTIMOORA) can be successfully applied in such benchmarking.http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.22.3.517