Sustainable development is firmly anchored in the European Treaties and has been at the heart of European policy for a long time. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 2015, have given a new impetus to global efforts for achieving sustainable development.
The EU is fully committed to playing an active role to maximise progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. This publication is the third of Eurostat’s regular reports monitoring progress towards the SDGs in an EU context. The analysis in this publication builds on the EU SDG indicator set, developed in cooperation with a large number of stakeholders.
The indicator set comprises around 100 indicators and is structured along the 17 SDGs. For each SDG, it focuses on aspects which are relevant from an EU perspective. The monitoring report provides a statistical presentation of trends relating to the SDGs in the EU over the past five years (‘short-term’) and, when sufficient data are available, over the past 15 years (‘long-term’). The indicator trends are described on the basis of a set of specific quantitative rules.
- The EU made strongest progress over the last 5 years towards the overall achievement of SDG 3 ‘good health and well-being’, followed by SDG 1 ‘no poverty’ and SDG 8 ‘decent work and economic growth’.
- For nine SDGs, the EU made overall moderate progress over the past five years. Such moderate trends are visible for SDG 4 ‘quality education’, SDG 11 ‘sustainable cities and communities’, SDG 17 ‘partnership for the goals’, SDG 2 ‘zero hunger’, SDG 5 ‘gender equality’ , SDG 10 ‘reduced inequalities’, SDG 7 ‘affordable and clean energy’, SDG 12 ‘responsible consumption and production’ and SDG 15 ‘life on land’.
- SDG 13 ‘climate action’ and SDG 9 ‘industry, innovation and infrastructure’ are characterised by mixed positive and negative developments of the indicators.
In the case of three goals – SDG 6 ‘clean water and sanitation’, SDG 14 ‘life below water’ and SDG 16 ‘peace, justice and strong institutions’ – trends cannot be calculated due to insufficient data over the past five years.
Read and download the full report here.
Original source: European Commission
Published on 28 June 2019
