During an exchange of views on the greening of the 'European Semester', EU environment ministers, on Thursday 5 March, all welcomed the fact that the budget exercise now focuses on long-term sustainability and integrates the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
They all stressed that this demand had long been made by the EU Environment Council, which had so far not been heard, and welcomed the new impetus provided this year by the Annual Sustainable Growth Strategy (see EUROPE 12430/10).
They expressed their conviction that economic growth cannot be an end in itself and that the European economic agenda must contribute to transforming the EU into a sustainable society.
Avoid duplication. However, ministers discussed how the Commission intends to proceed in order to avoid possible duplication of work.
In essence, for the sake of efficiency, several delegations stressed the need to avoid duplicating national reporting efforts, based on the SDG compliance indicators, as Member States are already required to provide data as part of the United Nations monitoring.
Ministers took the opportunity to remind the European Commission of the long-standing request for a European strategy for the implementation of SDGs (see EUROPE 12300/11, 12214/10).
The Croatian Minister of the Environment and Energy, Tomislav Ćorić, welcomed a "constructive debate", the results of which will be included in the summary report that the Croatian Presidency is preparing on the European Semester for the March European Council.
Twenty-two delegations took the floor during this debate, which was initially intended to be public, but was not, "because it was too technical", according to one source. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)