Nachhaltiges Europa Abschlusspublikation - Global Marshall Plan

Nachhaltiges Europa
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through the European Parliament. The EU's eco-
nomic and social model, and the Lisbon strategy
which translate it into practice, cannot simply be
transposed to other parts of the world. Neverthe-
less, the WCSDG has highlighted a number of aspects
of the model which may be of interest to the
EU's partners, especially in terms of the processes
which are essential to the achievement of the balance
between all the objectives at stake. The EU
model places particular emphasis on solid institutional
structures for the management of economic,
social and environmental issues and the interplay
between them, on effective public services and
services of general interest, on strong social and
civil dialogue, on investment in human capital and
on the quality of employment.
We do not just expect our model to be self-
propagating – we have taken active steps to
propagate our vision.
After Lisbon, and its ambition for competitiveness,
the Stockholm European Council then decided that
the EU ambition should explicitly including an environmental
dimension. This recognises that in the
long term, economic growth, social cohesion and
environmental protection must go hand in hand.
Then, on the Commission’s proposals in its 2001
Communication “A Sustainable Europe for a Bet-
terWorld: A European Union Strategy for Sustainable
Development” the June 2001 European Council
in Gothenburg adopted the EU's general sus-
tainable development strategy which included a
number of key characteristics of the EU’s approach.
The external dimension was firmly
included.
It was decided that all policies should have sustainable
development as their core concern, and
particularly the impending reviews of Common
Policies. A commitment was made to consider how
the strategy was progressing against key indicators
at each successive Spring Council
A two-yearly stakeholder forum was set up as
from 2002, the Commission was committed to
producing a revised SD strategy document at the
beginning of each of its five yearly terms.
Finally, in March 2003, the European Council
agreed to add on some additional elements to be
included in the Sustainable Development Strategy
as part of EU follow-up to WSSD to:
- ensure effective follow-up to the new goals and
targets agreed in Johannesburg on water and sanitation,
the protection of the marine environment,
depleted fish stocks, chemicals and natural re-
sources, including forests and biodiversity;
– ensure effective follow-up to the commitment
made in Monterrey on the realisation of the 0,7%
target for official development aid;
– enhance corporate social and environmental
responsibility both at EU level and internationally;
– promote sustainable and fair trade, notably
through developing incentives to trade in sustainably
produced goods and encouraging export
credits consistent with sustainable development;
– further develop and implement the Union's
"Water for Life" and "Energy for Poverty Eradica-
tion and Sustainable Development" initiatives;
– contribute to the development of regional sus-
tainable development strategies, building for example
on the experience gained in the context of
the EUROMED process;
– timely elaborate at both international and EU
level the 10-year framework of programmes on
sustainable consumption and production, on which
the EU should take the lead;
– strengthen international environmental govern-
ance, which could lead to the upgrading of UNEP
into a specialised UN agency with a broadly-based
mandate on environmental matters”.
The process of producing the next sustainable development
strategy, mentioned in Gothenburg, is
of course now under way.
Currently, DG Environment is coordinating a proc-
ess of drawing up an inventory of actions that
have been taken both by Member States and at EU
level under the Sustainable Development Strategy.
The next EU Sustainable Consumption and Production
expert meeting will take place in Brussels at
the end of the month. The Inventory will then be
finalised and printed in due time for the “European
Stakeholder Meeting on Sustainable Consumption
and Production” taking place in Ostend 25 – 26
November 2004.
The internal developments are perhaps too numerous
to mention them all, but the recent
enlargement of the EU is too major to miss:
- Harmonisation with the environmental and social
acquis in the new Member States subject to transitional
arrangements.
– Support to new Member States to implement the
acquis, through relevant Community instruments.
– Alignment of the new members with the
objectives of EU development policy
– Intensified environmental focus on new neigh-
bours in the context of the Wider Europe Strategy.