Beyond Spring

Ways towards Sustainability in the EU beyond the Spring European Summit 2003

In a study for the Austrian environment ministry on the further development of (and link between) the European Sustainability strategy, Lisbon (structural indicator reporting) and Cardiff (environmental integration) processes with a special look at the role of structural and sustainability indicators, SERI explored possible strategies for the Austrian position at the next EU-Environmental Council meeting. One aim is to improve the integration process of sustainability into all sectoral policies.

European policy for sustainable development is presently characterised through several strategies and concepts whose role and relationship to each other are in great need to be defined and explained. It can be distinguished between:

• The Strategy for Sustainable Development (EU SDS), which rests on the basis defined at the European Council in Gothenburg (June 2001);

• The “Cardiff Process” describing the sectoral strategies for the integration of the environmental dimension into other policies;

• The “Lisbon Strategy” for employment, economic reform and social cohesion, to which the environmental dimension was added at the Stockholm European Summit (Spring 2001).

These policies are related to the Sixth Environmental Action Programme (6th EAP), which is a binding agreement of the EU institutions, setting out guidelines for European Environmental Policy as well as defining the core environmental policy input of an EU sustainability strategy.

The results of these processes achieved so far revealed considerable difficulties in concretising and developing these strategies as was planned: neither could consensus be achieved on the exact form and content of the EU SDS, nor could the “Cardiff Process” concerning the acceptance of sectoral strategies be concluded. The difficulty of bringing the different strategies together was also revealed. The development of an indicator system which should serve as a basis for the evaluation of the implementation of the abovementioned strategies underlies a continuous process of adaptations and change.

The structure of our argument of our study is as follows: Chapter 2 first describes the Lisbon Strategy and the relation of the Lisbon process with the EU sustainable development strategy. Our first thesis is: In their present constellation, the three pillars supporting the “roof” of sustainable development are of unequal height and strength: the strongest and highest pillar is still the economic one, while the environmental pillar cannot reach to the top. In order to allow for the three pillars to fully support the roof of sustainable development, equal weight must be given to the three dimensions of sustainable development.

In recent years, policy guidelines have gained increased attention within European policies. We therefore focus on possible landing places for environmental policies within the broad economic policy as well as the employment guidelines. Our second thesis suggests for the environmental sector to have a greater impact within the BEPGs as well as the Employment Guidelines by developing an equivalent set of policy guidelines for the environment sector, so-called environmental policy guidelines, describing concrete goals with measures and timelines.

Chapter 3 describes and analyses the EU Sustainable Development Strategy with regard to the implementation of the integration process. Additionally, the progress of sustainable development as formulated by the European Commission as well as the European Council will be criticised. It will also be argued that Gothenburg European Council conclusions, where the EU Sustainable Development Strategy was formulated, can be regarded as a strategy to integrate environmental aspects into the Lisbon process”. The set of indicators developed is being described and its relevance for sustainable development is being discussed. Next to criticism due that environmental indicators have simply been “glued” on an already existing list of indicators, suggestions are given in order to allow for a strengthening of the environment.

Chapter 4 describes and analyses the Cardiff Process. Our third thesis suggests that, in order to reach sustainable development, environmental integration is needed to join the three pillars of sustainable development, which again is represented as the roof on top of the pillars keeping them upright together and supporting them. With regard to the development of indicators, this leads to our fourth thesis: indicators for sustainable development can be derived in a three-dimensional space, which is to be developed along the central goals of economic, environmental and social sustainability. In addition, the relations between these dimensions has also to be depicted by indicators.

In Chapter 5 we suggest to develop the sustainability strategy further to a concept in which the three pillars of sustainable development are being mutually integrated into one policy / strategy, which makes up our fifth thesis: in the medium term the sustainable development strategy should be converted into a one-pillar system, in which all three dimensions are inter-linked and-connected. This delivers a set of integrated policy guideline indicators for sustainable development in addition to the structural indicators developed in the Lisbon/Barcelona process.

Chapter 6 draws some conclusions:

During the 1990ies the introduced changes for a strategic and goal-oriented model for environmental policy at the European level came to difficulties early in its commencement. The main reasons here fore are, as already mentioned,

• a piling up of strategies (Cardiff, Lisbon, Gothenburg) that are insufficiently harmonised with one another,

• a lack of time tabling and impetus in the Cardiff Process,

• a narrowing of sustainable development down to environmental concerns,

• and an unequal representation of environmental indicators in the list of structural indicators.

This problem is enlarged by an elementary lack of coherence as well as an uneven and inconsistent use of the term sustainable development.

In this study we attempted to answer several questions in this complex context to derive options for a better positioning of the environmental dimension in the further development of the EU SDS. These arguments can be used to further streamline the integration of environment/sustainability-related processes in the European Union as foreseen in the next Synthesis report of the European Commission. The European Sustainable Development Strategy could (and should) be used to fully integrate environmental aspects into the Lisbon process as foreseen in the Cardiff integration process (Art. 6 EU treaty).

The Gothenburg Summit was expected to revive the Cardiff integration process of environmental concerns into sectoral policies. As the progress of integration has been uneven and the timetable agreed on the Helsinki conclusions has not been followed by the different Councils they should have received a renewed mandate and clear time limits at this meeting. The European Council “agreed on a strategy for sustainable development and added an environmental dimension to the Lisbon process for employment, economic reform and social cohesion.” The European Council finally agreed to a “three pillar”-model which means that next to the economic and social pillar a third environmental pillar will complete the new strategy of a knowledge-based economy with sustainable economic growth.

In principle, this development means a step backwards for the integration of environmental concerns into sectoral policies if we assume that the Lisbon as well as the Cardiff strategies are equal long-term trend-setting visions for the development of the European Union. Instead of an integration process (Cardiff), the Lisbon/Gothenburg model implies that each dimension has to be balanced against each other. Sustainable development now only refers to environmental concerns instead of a broad policy approach integrating employment, economic, social and environmental issues alike. Sustainable development is now understood as a component of a vision rather than being the vision itself.

To strengthen the Lisbon process and to reinforce synergies between the three dimensions of the Lisbon strategy, equal attention should be given to economic, social and environmental dimensions in policy-making and decision-taking processes as called for at the Barcelona summit. Fundamental for the integration of the three dimensions of Sustainable Development is the formulation of goals and measurable targets for all three dimensions, from which a consistent set of policy measures can be derived. While for the social and economic dimensions, a well-established policy cycle process exists with the so-called broad economic and environmental policy guidelines and plays an important role for European and national policies, an analogous process is still needed for the environmental dimension. We therefore suggest to develop Environmental Policy Guidelines to equalize the strength of all 3 dimensions of sustainability in the Lisbon process.

The Cardiff process of integrating the environment into all other policies is an important and necessary step towards achieving sustainable development, which should be developed further, strengthened and broadened. Therefore, stocktaking of the Cardiff, Lisbon, and Gothenburg processes should be further developed in the coming years with the aim of achieving sustainable development in particular by putting into practice the de-coupling of economic growth from resource use and environmental degradation with the aim of reducing the overall pressure on the environment. All these efforts should finally lead to a process where Sustainability Policy Guidelines covering all 3 dimensions and sectors are developed as steering tools for development.

To monitor sustainable development, a step by step approach is suggested to improve the existing set of “structural indicators” towards an equal weight for all dimensions of sustainable development. In a first step, the environmental headline indicators suggested by the European Commission, should be used as environmental indicators. In a second step, the number of indicators should be balanced for all three dimensions. Indicators to map the goals of sectoral policies and their relation to the 3 dimensions of sustainable development should be included in a particular section.

In the medium term, and in addition to these processes, the three dimensions of sustainable development must be mutually intertwined and the mutual effects between all dimensions must be systematically monitored. To achieve that, a systemic set of indicators should be developed according to a general framework of sustainability goals, from which finally a set of headline indicators for monitoring sustainable development can be derived. These conclusions are followed by several annexes, detailing the described processes.