Nachhaltiges Europa Abschlusspublikation - Global Marshall Plan

Nachhaltiges Europa
From words to deeds
Margot Wallström, Mitglied der Europäischen Kommission 1
1 , zuständig für Umweltpolitik von 10/1999 bis 11/2004
10
I want to illustrate the two temporal dimensions of
sustainable development. One of them is intergenerational
or simply about the future: it is our
responsibility to our children, grandchildren and
their children. The other temporal dimension is intra-generational,
about the here and now: a responsibility
to the existing generations on this
planet.
What I would like to pass on to my children is a
world that is sustainable. A world where we take
good care of our planet - a world that is prosper-
ous - but a world where we make sure that prosperity
and social justice extend to all people.
For me, sustainable development is about bringing
the future and the rest of the world into the picture.
In other words: it is about the wholeness of
life. This is something that engages and is essential
to all of us. It carries a vision. And we need vi-
sions to move forward. I will now briefly describe
how the EU is trying to make sustainable development
a reality, not only within the EU, but also
globally. We are not there yet, so I will also open
up a few questions - what changes are necessary
to really reach sustainable patterns of develop-
ment.
From words to deeds - enlargement
Overall, I think the EU has made good progress
since the concept of sustainable development became
an issue in the 1990s and was then, in
1997, included in the EU Treaty as an overarching
political objective.
Perhaps the most important contribution the EU
has made to sustainable development in the EU,
but also globally, is actually fairly recent:
I am now European Commissioner for 25 countries.
Five decades after the European project began,
the divisions of the Cold War are gone and
we live in a Europe of common values, which is
home to 455 million people. To get here has taken
courage, determination and a lot of effort. It is a
moment of historical significance.
In the field of environment, the ten new Members
States have adopted EU standards and made considerable
efforts, with the support of EU funds, to
upgrade their environmental infrastructure.
They are implementing EU social policies and now
fully benefit from the internal market. And they
are putting into practice the EU’s Sustainable Development
Strategy.
EU Sustainable Development Strategy
This Strategy was adopted by EU leaders in Gothenburg
in 2001. It is composed of two main parts.
The first focuses on a number of key unsustainable
trends that threaten our current and future wellbeing,
such as climate change, rapid transport
growth, environmental threats to human health
and unsustainable use of natural resources. For
each of these key issues the strategy proposes
headline objectives and a series of policy meas-
ures.
The second, and arguably the more ambitious part
of the strategy, revises the very way that we
make policies. It calls for a new integrated and ho-
listic approach to policy-making to ensure that
economic, social and environmental policies are
dealt with in a mutually reinforcing way.
Achievements
So what have we achieved? I think our main
achievements have been threefold - we have
made progress internally, with regard to the external
effects of EU policies, and related to our international
commitments.
Firstly, we have developed various policies to enhance
sustainability internally, though most of
them also have positive external repercussions.
For example:
• The EU is the global leader in implementing
the Kyoto Protocol and reducing greenhouse gas
emissions.
• Once adopted, the EU's new regulatory system
for chemicals, REACH, will protect from the risks of
chemicals not only our health and our environ-
ment, but also the health of Inuit and other people
on this planet, as well as the global ecosystem.
• Our Environmental Technologies Action Plan
(ETAP), launched in January, will help remove barriers
to the development and uptake of technolo-
gies that are good for the environment and can at
the same time increase competitiveness.