Global Issues & External Action

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IEEP launched a new programme entitled Global Issues and External Action in October 2011 to stimulate wider analysis and debate on the external dimension of EU policies relating to the environment and sustainable development. The programme brings together IEEP’s work on this external dimension and is designed to develop it in the future, informing key international events in the process. The run-up to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) to be held in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012 is one example.

Sustainable development features prominently in the Lisbon Treaty as an objective to be pursued by the EU both internally and externally. Not only shall the EU ‘work for the sustainable development of Europe’ but it shall also contribute to ‘the sustainable development of the Earth’. According to the Treaty, one of the aims of such is to ‘help develop international measures to preserve and improve the quality of the environment and the sustainable management of global natural resources, in order to ensure sustainable development’. The EU’s self-proclaimed global leadership in environmental policy and sustainable development has become an important element of its identity and the political legitimation of several policies.

According to the EU’s Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS) the EU seeks to ‘actively promote sustainable development worldwide and ensure that the European Union’s internal and external policies are consistent with global sustainable development and its international commitments’. What the objective of ensuring the consistency of all EU policies with global sustainable development actually entails is not clear. Yet it is obvious that many policy measures highlighted in areas of the strategy such as energy and climate change, the management of natural resources and sustainable production and consumption, though treated as internal policies, also have significant external implications.

IEEP research so far indicates that the EU still has a very long way to go to achieve the objective set out in the SDS to ensure that its internal and external policies are consistent with global sustainable development. The task is enormous, if only due to the diversity and scope of EU policies and the size of the EU’s ecological footprint. But the mandate of Lisbon will ensure that it remains on the political agenda of all EU institutions.

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Latest in Global Issues & External Action

European Parliament report on sustainable competitiveness and innovation

The CAP could, and should, be primarily to assist EU agriculture to become more internationally competitive and sustainable and to achieve this by innovation. It already has many instruments to do this, and the reforms could further assist. However the resources deployed could be far better used.
The EU on the road to Rio+20: towards a sustainable outcome?

IEEP and the Institute for European Studies (IES) is pleased to invite you to an Environmental Policy Forum on ‘The EU on the road to Rio+20: towards a sustainable outcome?’ which will be held on 23 June 2011 in Brussels.
On the road to Rio: Preparing the EU’s position for the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development

IEEP's Marc Pallemaerts and IEEP Board Member Derek Osborn will be presenting at a meeting on 4 May organised by the European Parliament as part of its preparations for the upcoming UN Conference on Sustainable Development, to be held in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012.
IEEP Publication on the External Dimension of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy

Marc Pallemaerts addresses the impact of the EU’s consumption of natural resources on the global environment with case studies of biofuels, the Common Fisheries Policy and the regulation of international trade in illegally harvested timber, in a new publication.
Commission Issues Second Progress Report on Implementation of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy

IEEP Analysis Briefing: Sustainable Development
Programme of Conference on the External Aspects of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy

Programme of the Conference on the External Aspects of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy to be held in Brussels on 28 January 2009.
Policy Forum on the EU Sustainable Development Strategy

To mark the arrival of the ‘renewed' EU Sustainable Development Strategy, scheduled for approval by the European Council of the 15-16 June 2006, the Institute for European Environmental Policy ...
Revisiting the EU SDS

The EU's Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS) is a vital strategic document in terms of taking the environment agenda forward in Europe and offers a counter to the Lisbon competitiveness ...
Environmental policy integration in Europe: State of play and an evaluation framework

The report draws together the findings of many existing studies and reports on environmental policy integration in Europe. It reviews progress in implementing policy integration at country ...

Transatlantic Platform for Action on the Global Environment

The Transatlantic Platform for Action on the Global Environment (T-PAGE) is a forum to facilitate debate between members of EU and US civil society

Global Issues & External Action

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