Press Release: Commission proposes bold EU strategy for sustainable development

The European Commission has called on the June 2000 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 underpins economic performance, and a cost-effective environmental policy. To this end, the Commission proposes a European sustainable development 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. 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.

http://ec.europa.eu/comm/environment/eussd/index.htm http://ec.europa.eu/comm/environment/eussd/index.htm

---