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