Brussels, 18/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission presented its draft EU regional Social Progress Index (EU-SPI), on Tuesday 16 February, with a view to gathering the views and comments of civil society.
The draft EU-SPI seeks to measure social progress in 272 European regions (NUTS 2) based on 50 social and environmental indicators that capture three dimensions of social progress: Basic Human Needs (nutrition and basic medical care, water and sanitation, housing and personal safety), Foundations of Wellbeing (access to basic knowledge and to information and communications, health and wellness and ecosystem sustainability) and Opportunity (personal rights, personal freedom and choice, tolerance and inclusion, and access to advanced education).
Of the 50 indicators, 36 come from Eurostat, the others coming from the European Environment Agency (EEA), the Gallup World Poll, Eurobarometer and the Quality of Government Institute of the University of Gothenburg. Whenever possible, the indicators have been averaged over three years, 2011-2013, “to smooth out erratic changes and limit missing values problems”.
This project, the inspiration for which was the global social progress index, will seek to contribute to the “beyond GDP” debate on which a Parliamentary report has been produced and which was recently discussed with Regional Policy Commissioner Corina Cretu, who spoke out in favour of the project (see EUROPE 11488). According to the European Commission, the index will help to identify weaknesses in cohesion policy for the period from 2014 to 2020.
The Commission will present a final version of the index in October. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)