Strasbourg, 15/06/2006 (Agence Europe) - A genuine political project for a Europe of growth, job creation and a guarantor of social cohesion and respect for the environment for present and future generations or rather, a catalogue of good intentions serving to hide a motley reality behind it? Disappointed by the lack of progress in the implementation of the EU's sustainable development strategy over the last five years, many MEPs voiced their criticism on Thursday, of the lack of ambition in the revised strategy that has been submitted to the approval of the Heads of state and governments. Although, overall, MEPs regarded the proposal presented last December by the European Commission as deserving a renewal of the commitment made in 2001 by the European Council of Gothenburg, most of them were of the opinion that the 2005-10 strategy concentrated too much on economic growth to the detriment of the environmental and social pillars, relegated to the ranks of poor relations of sustainable development. They all acknowledged that they had been consulted by the Austrian presidency, even if, in their opinion, it was a bit late in the day for their recommendations to be able to influence the text, which will be ratified at the highest level on Thursday.
The resolution adopted in the plenary highlights the importance of placing the three pillars of sustainable development on the same footing, as well as the urgent need for better coordination between this sustainable development strategy and Lisbon Strategy. In other words, efforts for promoting growth, competitiveness and innovation have to be better coordinated with the environmental and social objectives. According to Parliament, sustainable development should be considered more as an economic opportunity (rather than a constraint) and a spur to technological innovation and investment. The EP appealed for “smart growth”, notably via the indispensable transformation of systems for providing energy and transport, which is both a key objective in the European programme for fighting against climate change and a factor for stimulating growth and exports in the Lisbon Strategy. Gabi Zimmer (Germany, GUE/NGL) interprets the Commission proposal as nothing but “an inventory of good intentions”.
French Green, Marie Anne Isler Béguin, asserted that, “The world ecological crisis is hitting with its full force and underlines the urgent need to take action. The Commission and Member States use and abuse the rhetoric of sustainable development to justify non-sustainable policies”. She also denounced the contradiction of the Natural 2000 network being financed in the future out of structural funds (so that a separate budgetary line is not created) while biodiversity is not even a priority in the Regional Funds. Françoise Grossetête, vice president of the EPP-ED group (France) attacked the Commission in this connection too, “We cannot claim that sustainable development is one of the three pillars of the Lisbon strategy and not set up the necessary cross over structures. Sustainable development is sounding hollow today”. Addressing the Commissioner she explained that she was not expecting much from the institutional agenda but pointed out that the Commissioner's “work programme should meet this challenge…the Commission has to be audacious and brave and it isn't. It permanently censures itself in the face of a paralysed Council, which is full of nothing but good intentions that are never followed up by deeds. In energy, nuclear is taboo, and it should be accompanied by renewable energies”. In connection with bio-fuels, we are aware that several Member States are proposing different solutions to us but we still need to harmonise these strategies. Where are the concrete proposals?” As for the Council, Ms Grossetête said that they should rationalise the tools the EU had - the Cardiff Process for integrating environmental aspects in other policies, the Gothenburg Strategy on sustainable development and the Lisbon Strategy that had recently been revised - to give birth to a “visionary policy”, which would be by far preferable to the current “policy of the instant”. In reply to this criticism, Commissioner Joe Borg explained, “what counts is getting results. Defining new more ambitious objectives is not very difficult. Getting everyone to support the implementation of objectives that are already laid down is a different matter” Joseph Pröll, the Austrian minister for the environment and president of the Council said that the text was “reasonable” and brought together into a single document, objectives, indicators, actions, and, for the first time, implementation mechanisms. He explained that, “We want to show that sustainable development is not a brake on growth, but makes smart growth possible through new sources of energy, energy efficiency, employment, innovation, solutions for sustainable mobility, production modes and sustainable consumption”. He affirmed that he was convinced that the “sustainable development strategy is a coherent framework in which the Lisbon Strategy can be a motor for growth”.