A ‘SMART GROWTH’ STRATEGY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT By Iain Begg and Allan Larsson Amid the insults and recriminations which followed the collapse of the EU budget negotiations last June, few people noticed that EU leaders succeeded in reaching agreement on a new sustainable development strategy. Such a strategy could, potentially, be pivotal in defining how the EU economy evolves in the decades to come and offer a way forward for the European social model. ‘Sustainable development’ represents the EU’s attempt to answer the question of whether the pursuit of economic growth can be made compatible with the preservation of long-cherished social policies and the protection of the environment. Yet sustainable development is far from becoming a defining principle of the EU: the Barosso Commission and influential European leaders such as Tony Blair continue to place much greater focus on growth than the other facets of economic development. Four years ago, it all looked very promising: the Gothenburg European Council of June 2001 defined sustainable development as a means of meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising those of the future. EU leaders agreed at that summit to focus simultaneously on the economic, social and environmental dimensions of economic development. However, the Gothenburg commitment has had only a limited impact on EU policies, while slow growth has had a debilitating effect on economic reform. Last June’s agreement is an attempt to revive the EU’s commitment to sustainable development. The European Commission is undertaking a review of the Gothenburg strategy. The ‘Declaration on the guiding principles for sustainable development’ agreed by the European Council is intended to guide the EU’s revised approach. Later in the autumn the Commission will propose a series of more concrete measures to ensure the strategy is implemented, and develop indicators and benchmarks to measure the progress made by member-states. Thus, sustainable development will be high on the agenda of the EU in the coming months. This briefing note looks at the EU’s attempts to integrate economic, social and environmental considerations into one strategy. It outlines first what was agreed at Gothenburg in 2001 and explores how the idea of sustainable development has fed into other policy choices. It then summarises the ‘principles’ of the June declaration and discusses their potential implications. It concludes with some recommendations for the Commission, the UK Presidency and the European Council.
The EU’s sustainable development agenda The expression ‘sustainable development’ dates back to the 1980 Brundtland report – a study led by a former Norwegian prime minister – that highlighted the many social and environmental problems confronting the global economy. EU governments recognised explicitly the idea of ‘sustainable development’
Centre for European Reform 29 Tufton Street London SW1P 3QL UK
T: 00 44 20 7233 1199 F: 00 44 20 7233 1117 info@cer.org.uk / www.cer.org.uk