The European Summit focused on the future of Europe with its Europe 2020 strategy. It is the follow-up to the Lisbon strategy passed in 2000, which declared that Europe was “to become the most dynamic competitive knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010”.

The new Europe 2020 strategy is almost identical in terms of substance. Sustainable - or as it is now called "intelligent" - growth, an emphasis on education, knowledge and research, as well as qualifications and employment and finally the environment are the core of the old and new strategy.