EU Sustainable Development Strategy Research Articles

ПРАВОВЕ РЕГУЛЮВАННЯ ВІДНОВЛЮВАЛЬНОЇ ЕНЕРГЕТИКИ: ЄВРОПЕЙСЬКИЙ ТА УКРАЇНСЬКИЙ ПІДХОДИ

Fossil fuel sources are the main source of energy in the energy sector, meanwhile dependence on natural gas and oil is the biggest cause of the environmental crisis. In the future, the demand for energy will grow, and this problem cannot be solved only through non-renewable sources. In recent decades, positive changes have been observed around the world towards expanding renewable energy capacities as an alternative way to meet the growing energy problems of humankind and prevent further consequences of climate change on our planet. It was noted that at the moment there has not been adopted a unified international document that would regulate the sphere of using alternative energy sources and would be mandatory for execution, despite the growing interest in alternative energy sources. The European vector of Ukraine’s development contributes to the interest in the legal regulation of renewable energy in the European Union. The development of renewable energy industry sources is an important element of the sustainable development strategy, in particular: at the global level – the Sustainable Development Goals for the period up to 2030, adopted in September 2015 by the UN General Assembly; at the regional level – the EU Sustainable Development Strategy; at the national level – Basic principles (strategy) of the state environmental policy of Ukraine for the period up to 2030. There were considered the provisions of the EU directives, the EU Sustainable Development Strategy, the EU Strategy in the field of energy and the fight against climate change until 2030, which are related to renewable energy industry. It were drawing attention to the broad interpretation of alternative energy sources in the legislation of Ukraine in comparison with the European approach, as well as to the ambiguous understanding of this term. It has been proven that the introduction of renewable energy industry sources in Ukraine is going on rather slow, which is primarily due to the imperfection of domestic legislation in this area, as well as low investment indicators in this promising branch of the national economy. The harmonization of the national regulatory framework with European legislation on this issue is attributed as the positive features of the legal regulation in the sphere of development of renewable energy industry.

Upravljanje otpadom u Evropskoj uniji

Over the past few decades, there has been significant concern about the impact of waste on the environment, and accordingly, the former European Communities and the European Union have adopted a number of environmental legislation. Inadequate waste management has led to numerous cases of pollution of land and groundwater, which jeopardized the natural functioning of the ecosystem and the health of the population exposed to pollution. The EU Sustainable Development Strategy identifies the prevention of waste generation and proper management of it as one of its main priorities. The need for waste management is clearly emphasized, in order tominimize the risk of endangering the lives and health of people and the environment. The aim of this paper is to present the most important EU legislationon waste management, as well as to analyse relevant case law of Court of Justice of European Union.

A differential multi-criteria analysis for the assessment of sustainability performance of European countries: Beyond country ranking

Sustainable development as a concept that aims to enhance the quality of life without affecting environment has been in focus in European policies since the last decade of 20th century. The objectives of EU Sustainable Development Strategy (EU SDS) are grouped into ten thematic areas, where almost each theme has at least one headline and several operational sustainable development indicators (SDIs). A large number of SDIs is needed to evaluate all EU SDS goals, which imposes the use of multivariate data mining techniques. This paper presents an empirical study carried out to assess the sustainability performance of European countries using the differential multi criteria analysis (DMCA) technique. The PROMETHEE (Preference Ranking Organization MeTHod for Enrichment Evaluations) was applied on 38 headline and operational SDIs defined under the EU SDS. This DMCA was applied to 30 European countries over a 10-year period (2004–2014) with the aim to determine the theme specific, as well as, overall sustainability progress. The DMCA reveals that the majority of European countries have made progress in sustainability in the studied period, where Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary and Sweden, have enhanced their sustainability performance concerning all themes. There are only two countries, namely Greece and Ireland, which have not made overall progress in this period. Also, above the average progress has been made concerning social inclusion, sustainable transport, and climate change and energy, while in all other themes additional efforts should be made in order to ensure sustainable performance progress in future years. Although the progress in reducing uneven development between EU members has been made, after 2009 a positive trend can be observed only in a limited number of SDS themes.

Indicators of sustainable development performance: Case study of European Union countries

Abstract A sustainable development strategy is an essential long-term strategy that aims to bring about a balance of three key policy factors: sustainable economic growth and economic and technological development, sustainable development of society based on social equality, and environmental protection with a rational use of natural resources. The sustainable development strategy is very complex and contains a large number of indicators, so one of the statistical methods that can be used for this complex problem is the I-distance method. It was created as a need to rank countries according to the level of socio-economic development and the problem was how to take advantage of all the indicators in order to calculate a synthetic indicator which would represent the rank. The I-distance method in this paper is used for the ranking of 18 countries of the European Union based on ten indicators that have been selected in accordance with the EU Sustainable Development Strategy. The used headline indicators come from the following areas: socio-economic development, sustainable consumption and production, social inclusion, demographic changes, public health, climate change and energy, sustainable transport, and global partnership. By analysing the initial set of indicators and their correlation coefficients with the found I-distance values, the following most important indicators were found: official development assistance as a share of the gross national income, employment rate of older workers, healthy life years and life expectancy at birth (males), energy consumption of transport relative to GDP etc. Countries that occupied the top three places were Sweden, Luxembourg, and Finland while Croatia, Poland, and Slovenia occupied the last three places.

MULTIDIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN COUNTRIES OF CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

The aim of this study is to compare the situation of 10 countries in Central and Eastern Europe in terms of sustainable development. The comparison was made taking into account 10 dimensions (thematic areas) covered by the EU Sustainable Development Strategy, which include: socio-economic development, sustainable production and consumption, social inclusion, demographic change, public health, climate change and energy, sustainable transport, natural resources, global partnership and good governance. The results of the analysis allowed us to identify the leaders, followers and laggards, or countries at diff erent points on the road to sustainable development. In addition, the study attempts to evaluate the possibility of reducing the gap between the countries of Central and Eastern Europe relative to the EU average. The values of sustainable development indicators have been obtained from the website of Eurostat with regard to 2013.

System pomiaru zrównoważonego rozwoju w Unii Europejskiej

Wskaźniki zrównoważonego rozwoju stanowią podstawowe narzędzie monitoringu Strategii Zrównoważonego Rozwoju Unii Europejskiej. Celem artykułu jest zatem wskazanie strategicznych uwarunkowań dotyczących monitorowania zrównoważonego rozwoju oraz ocena obecnego systemu wskaźników służących do monitorowania europejskiej Strategii Zrównoważonego Rozwoju. W oparciu o dane statystyczne, pozytywny trend można zaobserwować jedynie w przypadku wskaźników głównych, dotyczących obszarów: „zmiany demograficzne”, a także „zmiany klimatu oraz energia”, natomiast brak wyraźnej poprawy w kierunku bardziej zrównoważonego rozwoju pokazuje wskaźnik główny z obszaru „włączenie społeczne”. Metodologia monitorowania i ciągła aktualizacja zbioru danych na poziomie UE stwarza nowe wyzwania dla rozwoju nowych wskaźników. Przedstawione wyniki wskazują na konieczność dalszego doskonalenia pomiaru i kontroli rezultatów zastosowanych działań.

Assessment of sustainable development in the EU 27 using aggregated SD index

In the European Union the sustainable development is a fundamental and overarchingobjective enshrined in the Treaty and measuring progress towards sustainable development is an integral part of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy. Eurostat produce a monitoring report every two years based on the EU set of sustainable development indicators (SDIs). The main objective of this paper is to create an aggregated index of the sustainable development from EU set of SDIs for each 27 EU country based on the PCA. The headline indicator economic growth was not involved because its increase is not expressly followed by positive change in other SDIs from social, economic and environmental fields. The aggregated SD index enables to get an overall picture about the position of each of the 27 EU countries and its development in terms of the sustainability over time as assumed in the EU Sustainable Development Strategy. Sweden, Denmark, Netherland, and Great Britain have repeatedly reached the highest value of aggregated SD index. The highest positive change in the aggregated SD index has occurred in countries with the lowest value of aggregated SD index. Moreover, we put this new aggregated index in relation with economic growth and found that there is a negative correlation between aggregated SD index and the economic growth for most of the 27 EU countries.

The Lisbon Strategy and Sustainable Development Strategies Across Europe: How Different Governance Arrangements Shape the European Coherence of Policy Documents

The present paper compares two major political strategies that are being pursued across the EU, i.e. the Lisbon Strategy and sustainable development (SD) strategies. It first highlights their complementary character in implementing the societal guiding model known as SD, and it compares their different histories and governance arrangements. While the Lisbon Strategy is a genuinely European response to global pressures that employs the open method of coordination (OMC), guidance for SD strategies came from the international level, and OMC emerged only cautiously and temporarily after the renewal of the EU SD strategy in 2006. Based on an empirical stocktaking of policy objectives and indicators, the paper then assesses how the different supra-national governance arrangements shape the coherence of the respective national strategies across Europe. It shows that, so far, OMC was not able to facilitate a ‘standardised format’ of Lisbon Strategies across Europe as envisaged by the European Commission; to the contrary: OMC entailed only slightly more coherent National Reform Programmes than international guidance did in the SD context.

Sustainable development and public health: rating European countries

BackgroundSustainable development and public health quite strongly correlate, being connected and conditioned by one another. This paper therein attempts to offer a representation of Europe’s current situation of sustainable development in the area of public health.MethodsA dataset on sustainable development in the area of public health consisting of 31 European countries (formally proposed by the European Union Commission and EUROSTAT) has been used in this paper in order to evaluate said issue for the countries listed thereof. A statistical method which synthesizes several indicators into one quantitative indicator has also been utilized. Furthermore, the applied method offers the possibility to obtain an optimal set of variables for future studies of the problem, as well as for the possible development of indicators.ResultsAccording to the results obtained, Norway and Iceland are the two foremost European countries regarding sustainable development in the area of public health, whereas Romania, Lithuania, and Latvia, some of the European Union’s newest Member States, rank lowest. The results also demonstrate that the most significant variables (more than 80%) in rating countries are found to be “healthy life years at birth, females” (r2 = 0.880), “healthy life years at birth, males” (r2 = 0.864), “death rate due to chronic diseases, males” (r2 = 0.850), and “healthy life years, 65, females” (r2 = 0.844).ConclusionsBased on the results of this paper, public health represents a precondition for sustainable development, which should be continuously invested in and improved.After the assessment of the dataset, proposed by EUROSTAT in order to evaluate progress towards the agreed goals of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS), this paper offers an improved set of variables, which it is hoped, may initiate further studies concerning this problem.

CONCEPTUAL APPROACHES TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY

Sustainability and security assessment currently arises as comprehensive and integrated approach. Sustainable development is a fundamental and overarching objective of the European union (Eu) countries. It aims to improve the quality of life of citizens through sustainable communities that manage and use resources, by linking economic development and security, protection of the environment and social justice. Measuring progress towards sustainable development is an integral part of the Eu Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS), that defines objectives and targets intended to put the European union on a path towards sustainable development. The issue of economic security and sustainability has been analyzed in theory from different perspectives. In many studies the macroeconomic indicator Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the best-recognized measure of economic performance in the world. However, GDP may measure economic growth but does not involve all aspects of sustainable growth or development. In order to effectively measure progress and wealth, clear indicators are needed that incorporate social and environmental costs and benefits. There is no shortage of research on indicators complementary to GDP, but this remains a subject for academic discussions. In order to manage security and sustainability, society has to formulate clear and measurable goals of sustainability. The level, at which these goals are achieved, might be measured using sustainable development indicators. The paper aims to reveal prevailing conceptual approaches of sustainability from the macroeconomic as well as corporation perspectives, to summarize and compare the key factors describing sustainable development. The method of the research is based on logic abstraction that encompasses generalizations and examinations on theoretical approaches and academics’ surveys.

An exercise in composite indicators construction: Assessing the sustainability of Italian regions

This paper presents a piece of research aimed at evaluating the relative sustainability of the Italian Regions. After selecting a core set of indicators, for which we referred to the EU Sustainable Development Strategy, we built a composite index and checked for its robustness. As a result we got ‘many numbers’, that is, a range of possible rankings for Italian Regions.

A European methodology for sustainable development strategy reviews

AbstractIn 2005 the EU Environment Directorate initiated the production of a guidebook for peer reviews of national sustainable development strategies (NSDSs), which was published in 2006. Its objective is to support EU member states planning to evaluate their respective NSDS, supporting and stimulating all potential participants. It describes how to initiate, start, lead and conclude an evaluation process, and suggests, based on European experiences, a spectrum of methods available for this purpose. During a Commission‐sponsored trial period, 2006/2007, the Netherlands was the only country to make use of this offer.However, the renewed EU Sustainable Development Strategy (EUSDS) calls for regular (peer) reviews of NSDS. Using this specific review instrument is recommended as part of a mutual learning exercise, which might stimulate a self‐organized convergence of NSDSs, and better vertical integration, without establishing new competences and mechanisms on the EU level.Two new elements are suggested, a simple ‘pressure–policy matrix’ (PPM), supporting comprehensiveness control, and the possibility of patchwork evaluations, based on the systematique of the matrix. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

EUの持続性戦略と欧州統合の行方

The EU Sustainable Development Strategy (EU SDS) was launched in the 2001 Goteborg European Council. Its purpose is to establish the general policy framework that incorporates three pillars such as economic prosperity, social equity and environmental protection. In addition, its strategy has been managed in line with open method of coordination. The paper examines the EU SDS from two viewpoints: governance modes and policy discourses. In so doing, the paper suggests a research strategy that reconsiders the meanings of European integration from studies of policy development of individual fields in comparative perspective. The paper first takes a general view of the evolutionary process of EU environmental policies, and by emphasising the legislation-oriented policy development on the basis of Articles 2, 100 and 235 EEC in the 1970s to 90s, the paper demonstrates that the 2001 EU SDS opened a new stage of the evolutionary process. Second, the paper examines the governance mode of EU SDS that can be characterized essentially as open method of coordination, paying attention to three aspects of EU SDS: voluntary national actions, stakeholder consultation prosesses and non-legislative instruments. On these considerations, the paper points out the democratic problems of open method of coordination, which may weaken the political power of the European Parliament as well as the critical function of civil society organisations. On this basis, the paper suggests potential democratic problems emerging in the evolutionary process of EU environmental policies. Third, the paper considers the policy discourse of EU SDS, which ambiguously constructs the general view of a promised land of EU citizens that should be brought about by the EU. At the same time, the paper also finds discursive contestation between neo-liberalist and social democrat tendencies around the meanings of the concept of sustainable development in EU SDS, and then points out the dominance of a neo-liberatist discourse against a social democratic one. In concluding remarks, the paper suggests a comparative research scheme to investigate governance modes and policy discourses among individual policy fields, so that we can reflect on the possible way forward of European integration if the Community method has been withdrawn and open method of coordination together with neo-liberalist discourses has gained ground.

EnviWiki – the Czech Multimedia Toolkit for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) (reviewed text)

EnviWiki, The educational encyclopaedia for ESD literacy has been selected to be part of the EC DG EAC Inventory of innovative good practice on education for sustainable development. The main purpose of the Inventory is to show concrete examples which have been implemented in the Member States under the concept of ESD in formal and non-formal learning contexts and which are at the forefront as regards innovative approaches. Projects/programmes selected as innovative good practice will be used to inform the preparation of the next Progress Report on the EU Sustainable Development Strategy in Education. See European Commission DG Education and Culture Inventory of innovative practices in education for sustainable development, the case study EnviWiki - Environmental Literacy for Teachers (CZECH REPUBLIC), page 51.

Networking European Universities through e-learning (reviewed text)

Virtual Campus for a Sustainable Europe (VCSE) network has been selected to be part of the EC DG EAC Inventory of innovative good practice on education for sustainable development. The main purpose of the Inventory is to show concrete examples which have been implemented in the Member States under the concept of ESD in formal and non-formal learning contexts and which are at the forefront as regards innovative approaches. Projects/programmes selected as innovative good practice will be used to inform the preparation of the next Progress Report on the EU Sustainable Development Strategy in Education. See European Commission DG Education and Culture Inventory of innovative practices in education for sustainable development, the case study VCSE - Virtual Campus for a Sustainable Europe (EUROPEAN LEVEL), page 33.

Sustainable development and the ‘governance challenge’: the French experience with Natura 2000

AbstractSustainable development is conceptualized in this paper as a serious challenge for governance structures and processes in nation states. Global and European agreements have placed the inclusion of civil society actors in policy‐making at the heart of the sustainability agenda. This commitment is particularly evident in the Commission's White Paper on Governance and the EU Sustainable Development Strategy. From this perspective, the European Commission has consistently underlined the integral role of dialogue with social partners in any sustainability agenda. In contrast, there is a clear mismatch between these principles of civil society inclusion and policy‐making in France. Long‐standing traditions of meso‐corporatism have struggled to adapt to extending participation to civil society actors. This paper assesses the implementation of sustainable development as civil society inclusion with reference to the French experience in dealing with EU biodiversity policy. It is argued that this governance challenge has effectively presented nation states with an ‘interpretation dilemma’ with regards to sustainable development. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

The Democratic Quality of Soft Governance in the EU Sustainable Development Strategy: A Deliberative Deficit

The EU Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS) has taken on an Open Method of Coordination (OMC)‐like style. This soft mode of governance entails an interpretation, specification and substantiation of social values and norms. Therefore, the democratic quality of this style of governance needs to be examined. While a shift to an OMC‐like style of policy creation usually implies the retreat of the Community method and thereby a weakening of the European Parliament’s (EP) political power, this style has established counterbalancing institutional arrangements of a democratic nature, such as the involvement of the EP, societal input by stakeholder consultations and transparency. However, a discourse analysis reveals an important deliberative deficit of the EU SDS. This article argues that the OMC‐like style of the EU SDS lacks mechanisms of deliberative control over discourse formation and contestation on the meaning of sustainable development.

PROCESSING TOMATO CROPPING SYSTEM SUSTAINABILITY PATHWAYS: STATE OF THE ART AND RULES OF THUMB

Sustainable development is a strategic objective of the European Union. The EU commitment to sustainable development was first set out in Gothenburg adopting the “EU Sustainable Development Strategy” (2001), which was endorsed by the Barcelona EU Council communication (2002) and recently confirmed as a core strategic objective as reported in the communication “Strategic objectives 2005-2009” (2005). From the 1990s “sustainability” has become a keyword for most of the social, economic and ecological issues, mainly with regard to mid or long-term regional/global development, however there is no generally acknowledged definition of “sustainable agriculture”. Even thought several attempt to define the sustainable agriculture criteria was made during the last five years, the expression is still used especially in the context of analysing the negative effects of certain crop production methods. Such a “negative approach” to sustainable agriculture it causes a sharp reduction of the overall view, focusing to some specific, and often partial, targets such pest management, fertilisation and water use for irrigation. As a result, much of the applied sustainable agriculture techniques was relied on a simple input substitution rather than an ecological system approach. A more holistic understanding of the cropping system and of the whole production chain is needed, following Assets-Based Model proposed by Pretty (1999). To reach and keep a good balance in the three-dimensional dynamic schema among Ecology, Economy and Social equity, proposed in the Brundtland report (1987), will be quite difficult in a complex reality such the processing tomato production chain. Some aspect should be highlighted and discussed:

Case study: Impact of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy on research funding policy through the EC Framework Programmes funding stream

In the context of global milestones in political commitment to sustainable development, this case study looks briefly at the influence of European Council approaches to sustainable development on the priorities for research funding administered by the European Commission, and notes the increasing mainstreaming of sustainability objectives in diverse areas of research.

Competitiveness and Environmental Policy: A Failed Marriage?

Since the mid-1990s, the traditional Community method of policy-making and the resulting command-and-control legislation has been challenged as viable means to regulate markets. The emphasis on subsidiarity and on the “better regulation” agenda contributed to weakening the political support for centralized, top-down EU legislative action and encouraged wider recourse to more cooperative modes of multi-level governance. This trend was further reinforced by the debates following the adoption of the Lisbon strategy. In this context, competitiveness entails working with markets which, in turn, implies that measures that could be detrimental to the competitiveness of producers and could give rise to contestation are avoided. At the same time, the adoption of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy and its addition as the third, environmental, pillar to Lisbon meant that environmental policy-making would be influenced by the overall Lisbon goals. In order to achieve support and cooperation from actors in the markets, policy makers must convince actors in the market of the benefits and competitive rewards of operating in an environmentally sound manner. This concern for competitiveness gave rise to a particular market-oriented approach to EU environmental policy, which seeks to work ‘with’ rather than ‘against’ markets to achieve environmental improvements.