EU: Strategy for sustainable development

The European Commission has called on next month's Gothenburg European Council to take urgent action to secure a better quality of life for present and future generations.

This requires sustained economic growth which supports social progress and respects the environment, a social policy which underpin economic performance, and a cost-effective environmental policy. To this end, the Commission proposes a European sustainable strategy consisting of three parts. Firstly, a set of cross cutting proposals to ensure that future policy making is more coherent and cost effective, as well as to promote technological innovation and stronger involvement of civil society and business in policy formation. The future reviews of common policies such as the Common Agricultural Policy, the Common Fisheries Policy and the Common Transport Policy should have sustainable development as their central concern. Secondly, a set of headline objectives and EU-wide measures to tackle the biggest challenges to sustainable development not dealt with in the Lisbon strategy: climate change, threats to public health, depletion of natural resources, traffic congestion and land use problems. Finally, it identifies the steps needed after the Gothenburg summit to implement the strategy and to take stock of progress. In future sustainable development will be on the agenda of every spring European Council.

More information:
- Press release 16 May 2001 (European Commission)
- European Union Sustainable Development Strategy

Date of publication: 19/05/2001

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