La Reunion's Smart Specialisation Strategy / S3 for Reunion island

The emergence of the idea of “smart specialisation” occurs in a context of questioning about the sustainability of the European economic model. Confronted with a systemic crisis, in 2010 the European Commission promoted a new agenda: Europe 2020. After the disappointments of the Lisbon strategy, the European Union is now counting on the transition to a competitive, sustainable and socially inclusive economy, thanks to innovation and bioeconomy. The goals are ambitious: raise the employment rate from 69% to 75%, take the R&D effort from 2% to 3% of EU GDP, reduce CO2 emission rates by 20% compared to 1990, reduce the poverty rate to 25%, lower the school dropout rate to 10%. In order to propel this transformation, all EU instruments are now created, coordinated and deployed in a “common strategic framework”, which also applies to the cohesion policy. Henceforth, access to structural funds is conditioned by the signature of a “partnership agreement”, in which national and local authorities will present an action plan to the Commission designed to set the beneficiary region on the path to Europe 2020. For the Commission, the Union’s recovery lies in reinforcing each region’s economic potential through a process of identification and exploitation of its specific competitive advantages, a “smart specialisation” strategy known as S3.