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17.12.2009

Lea Vatanen
European Commission, Secretariat-General, D-2


 

t is a fundamental objective of the EU.

Article 3 of the Treaty on European Union:

The Union shall establish an internal market. t shall work for the 






 of Europe based on balanced economic growth and price stability, a
highly competitive social market economy, aiming at full employment and social
progress, and a high level of protection and improvement of the quality of the
environment. t shall promote scientific and technological advance.

t shall combat social exclusion and discrimination, and shall promote social justice
and protection, equality between women and men, solidarity between generations
and protection of the rights of the child.

t shall promote economic, social and territorial cohesion, and solidarity among
Member States.

t shall respect its rich cultural and linguistic diversity, and shall ensure that Europe's
cultural heritage is safeguarded and enhanced.
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˜irst strategy in 2001

Revised strategy in 2006

 Progress report every two years
˜irst report in 2007
Second report in 2009
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Covers 7 cross-cutting challenges
1. Climate change and clean energy
2. Sustainable transport
3. Sustainable consumption and production
4. Management of natural resources
5. Public health
6. Social inclusion, demography and migration
7. Global poverty
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ncludes 4 horizontal issues
1. Education
2. Research and development
3. ˜inancial instrument
4. Communication and closer monitoring of the
strategy itself
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 The Commission adopted the second progress
report on 24 July 2009 ± COM (2009) 400
 Communication is divided in three parts:
1. Development of the concept of sustainable
development
2. Policy progress at EU level since October 2007
3. nput for reflection and debate on how to bring the
sustainable development into the future

 







EU has mainstreamed the sustainability dimension

into a broad range of policies
o Better regulation and impact assessment system
o Revised social agenda
o External cooperation
o Corporate social responsibility
o «




 Positive policy progress in all areas covered by
the Sustainable Development Strategy
 Unsustainable trends persist ± efforts need to
be intensified
Eurostat monitoring report 2009, based on
Sustainable Development ndicators, has been
published in December




Examples of EU actions:
 EU's climate and energy package of December 2008
 Actions for greening of transport and more intelligent
transport systems
 mprovement of energy efficiency of buildings
 Revisions of eco-design and eco-label directives
 Setting up an integrated maritime policy framework and
EU health strategy
 Work on migration
 ˜ight against poverty and exclusion
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nput for reflection on how to bring the sustainable
development into the future ± several µpistes¶ for
reflection
o Link to post-Lisbon strategy reflections
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Role of the EU SDS
The only cross-cutting EU instrument to look at
sustainable development from a wide, long-term
perspective
Provides a political space to discuss out of short-term
thinking
Can help preparing policy responses to long-term
challenges



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EU SDS promotes the overall objective of sustainable
development; concept of SD has been mainstreamed
in wide areas of policies
n practice sustainable development is promoted and
monitored in the context of individual policies
EU SDS has helped to develop and update National
Sustainable Development Strategies
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Lisbon Strategy and EU SDS serve different but
complementary purposes:
 Lisbon: dynamic strategy for growth and jobs, with an
environmental component
 promotes the overall objective of SD by improving
competitiveness, economic growth, job creation (role of
economic development towards a more sustainable
society)
 EU SDS: framework for guiding and reporting on long-
term broad developments and promoting forward-
looking reflection on sustainability
Other strategies: ntegrated Maritime Policy,
Climate Change and Energy Package, Health
Strategy«
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Merging the cross-cutting strategies does
not seem feasible as they fulfil different
roles
nstead:
 Clarification of the specific role of the EU SDS
in relation to other EU strategies
 ˜urther streamlining?




 Points for consideration:
Greater synergy with Lisbon and other cross-cutting
strategies; better coordination
Streamlining vs. keeping overarching nature
Mechanisms for monitoring
˜acilitating the exchange of best practices between
the Member States
New challenges
˜urther development of Sustainable Development
ndicators
o NB. Also a communication µGDP and beyond ±
measuring progress in a changing world¶
(COM(2009)433 of 20.8.09)
Other points?
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 Currently the Strategy has a wide scope ->
need for stronger focus?
 Streamlining to help to achieve long-term
objectives?
Low-carbon and low-input economy, based on
o Energy and resource-efficient technologies
o Sustainable transport
and sustainable consumption behaviour
Protection of biodiversity
Promotion of social inclusion
Strengthening the international dimension
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 µ˜riends of the Presidency¶ report 1.12.2009

 European Council conclusions of 10/11
December:
o EU SDS provides a long-term vision and overarching
policy framework
o Unsustainable trends require urgent action
o Priority actions more clearly specified in future reviews
o Governance should be reinforced for example through
clearer links to the future EU 2020 strategy and other
cross-cutting strategies
˜

mmediate priority is to integrate
sustainbility objectives in the future EU
2020 strategy.
 EU 2020 aims to deliver greener and socially
inclusive growth
 The consultation document sets out three
priorities:
Creating value by basing growth on knowledge
Empowering people in inclusive societies
Creating a competitive, connected and greener
economy
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EU 2020:
 Public consultation ongoing until 15.1.2010
http://ec.europa.eu/eu2020/
 A proposal for the EU 2020 strategy early next
year, with a view to the EU's Heads of State
and government adopting the strategy at their
spring 2010 meeting
EU SDS:
 EU SDS foresees that at the latest by 2011 the
European Council will decide when a
comprehensive review needs to be launched
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Sustainable development website

http://ec.europa.eu/sustainable/welcome/index_en.
htm
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contact: Lea.vatanen@ec.europa.eu