European Union Strategies

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Organizers

The Brussels-EU Chapter and the European Support Centre of the Club of Rome

in co-operation
with the

Austrian EU Presidency 2006

Extract from
"Assessing the EU Sustainable Development Strategy - Exploratory Opinion"
by the European Economic and Social Committee
http://www.eesc.europa.eu

2.4 The relationship between the Lisbon strategy and the sustainability strategy

2.4.1 The Lisbon strategy is distinct from the sustainability strategy on three key points. It:

clearly puts the focus on economic growth and economic reforms in order to achieve more and better jobs and social cohesion;
has a clear time limit (2010); and also
has an almost purely European focus (its purpose is to make Europe the most competitive, knowledge-based economic area).

2.4.2 The Committee welcomed the addition, at the Gothenburg summit, of an environmental chapter to the Lisbon strategy, and the adoption of a sustainable development strategy – albeit with relatively limited content. The fact that the Council only recently reiterated its call for environmental considerations to be incorporated more into the Lisbon strategy shows the shortcomings still existing on this front. Taking greater account of environmental protection can help to make the Lisbon strategy more consistent with the sustainability strategy, but it is clear that this will not automatically follow.2.4.3It should also be noted that important matters (such as distributive justice and intergenerational justice) that were considered at Rio and Johannesburg to be essential for sustainable development are not directly covered by the Lisbon strategy and will therefore not necessarily result from its implementation.

2.4.4 The two strategies must be coherent under the overarching objective of long-term sustainable development. This means that sustainable development objectives must permeate all policy areas of the Lisbon strategy. In this way, the Lisbon strategy can and should be an important intermediate step on the way to sustainable development, but cannot be a substitute for a long-term sustainability strategy.

2.4.5 The economic growth generated by the Lisbon strategy must be qualitative and decoupled from resource use to a greater extent, so that it is compatible with sustainable development. However, this also means that the Lisbon strategy can make an important contribution to the sustainability strategy if it helps refocus the economy on a more sustainable model.

2.4.6 It is essential therefore that, like other EU spending, investments in the context of the EU growth initiative meet the sustainability criteria. On that score, the Committee would point out that this issue has been widely examined within organised civil society29. The Committee recommends that, in a specific communication to the Council, the Parliament, the CoR and the EESC, the Commission should address the consistency between EU investments (including those funded by the EIB) in transport, energy and other infrastructure projects and sustainable development policy.