| Background | 2001 Sustainable Development Strategy | Sustainable Development Strategy Review 2005 |
The Lisbon European Council in 2000 set an objective for 2010: Europe should become “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”. In March 2001, the Stockholm European Council decided to complement the Lisbon Strategy with an environmental dimension. Some months later, in June 2001, the Gothenburg European Council discussed the proposal for a Sustainable Development Strategy, prepared by the Commission at the request of the 1999 Helsinki European Council.
2. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY (2001)
2001 Sustainable Development Strategy should be implemented in three phases:
1) Proposals and recommendations that will reinforce one another rather than pulling in opposite directions.
2) A set of headline objectives and specific measures at EU level to tackle the issues which pose the biggest challenges to sustainable development in Europe.
3) Steps to implement the strategy and review its progress.
The SDS involves 3 pillars: economic, social and environmental; and it is focused on 6 priorities areas:
Climate Change
Public Health
Poverty and Social Cohesion
Ageing
Natural Resources Management
Mobility and Transport
However, according to the proposal, 2 priority areas (ageing and poverty and social cohesion) were already covered by the Lisbon Strategy, so the recommendation addressed to the other 4 priorities.
| PRIORITY | OBJECTIVES |
| Climate change |
As a first step, The EU
will meet its Kyoto commitment. Reduce atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 1% per year over 1990 levels up to 2020. Insist that the other major industrialised countries comply with their Kyoto targets. |
| Public Health |
Make food safety and quality the
objective of all players in the food chain. By 2020, ensure that chemicals are only produced and used in ways that do not pose significant threats to human health and the environment. Tackle issues related to outbreaks of infectious diseases and resistance to antibiotics. |
| Natural Resources Management |
Break the links between economic
growth, the use of resources and the generation of waste. Protect and restore habitats and natural systems and halt the loss of biodiversity by 2010. Improve fisheries management to reverse the decline in stocks and ensure sustainable fisheries and healthy marine ecosystems, both in the EU and globally. |
| Mobility and Transport |
Decouple transport growth
significantly from growth in Gross Domestic Product in order to reduce
congestion and other negative side-effects of transport. Bring about a shift in transport use from road to rail, water and public passenger transport so that the share of road transport in 2010 is no greater than in 1998 (the most recent year for which data are available) Promote more balanced regional development by reducing disparities in economic activity and maintaining the viability of rural and urban communities, as recommended by the European Spatial Development Perspective. |
In order to review the SDS the Commission proposed:
Annual Review in the Spring European Council.
Stakeholders Forums organised in collaboration with the Economic and Social Committee.
3. Sustainable Development Strategy 2005 Review
Data and 2004 public consultation showed that there has not been a real progress in the implementation of the Strategy and the objectives haven’t been achieved. The Commission, in collaboration with the Economic and Social Committee as well as the stakeholders, is preparing the 2005 revision of the SDS.
3.1. 2004 Public Consultation
The 2004 public consultation has revealed a general agreement with the SDS approach, but not with the weight given to the components. Environment NGOs support a greater weight to the environmental pillar while bussiness stakeholders think that the attention to the economic pillar is not enough in the current Strategy. The 68,6% of the participants think that Lisbon and Sustainable Development Strategies are not complementary, and their objectives are contradictory. In order to get better complementarities there are two different views: in one hand, the SDS should recognise Lisbon and have strong economic basis; in the other hand, other sector think that it is the Lisbon Strategy the one who should include a stronger environmental dimension. According to the results, DGs are too independent; there is not a real internal cooperation. In addition, there is a lack of coherence between the Institutions of the Union and an imbalance of coordination with the Member States. The participants have suggested working on intersectoral and interdisciplinary solutions looking for win-win-win solutions. The 65,2% of the participants agree with the positive impact of assessment in the policy coherence. It can help to analyse the 3 pillars of the SDS but up to date, it has been too focused on competitiveness. A usual problem of impact assessment is the influence of some stakeholder groups in the draft of proposals. Impact assessment is reliable only when we use a proper methodology and quality data is available. The recommendations to improve the method are: standardisation; greater role of cost/benefit analysis; an independent office for impact assessment; improve the role of the stakeholders with a balance of inputs of all representative groups.
3.2 STAKEHOLDER FORUM 2005
The Stakeholder Forum on Economic Development, organised by the Economic and Social Committee together with the Commission, took place on 14 and 15th April 2005. At the closing session, Barroso, the President of the European Commission, accepted EESC President Anne-Marie Sigmund’s invitation to associate the EESC in the monitoring and implementation of a revised Sustainable Development Strategy.
The Lisbon Strategy was a core issue during the Forum, and was considered as one of the most important points for Sustainable Development. All the speakers and participants established the need of a view of the Lisbon Strategy within the Sustainable Development Strategy. Barroso, Dimas (Environment Commissioner) as well as other speakers, made a great effort to show that Lisbon Strategy is, in fact, part of the SDS.
The 3 pillars of SDS were touched in the Forum, though there was a deeper approach to the environment one. The lost of competitiveness was a point that Ms Sharma tried to defend in the middle of a more environmental table. The most important aspects for the debate were: communication and awareness on sustainable development identify objectives, assessment of principles.
The Forum was organised in a very innovative way in order to maximize participants' involvement and creativity. The new approach was successful with the Open Space Method, where the participants established the topics and the debate took place in the workshops. The topic involved all the priority areas of the Strategy. The results of the workshops are available in the EESC website. (click aquí)