SDGs are compass for EU’s development: European Commission

BRUSSELS: Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union (EU), published a paper providing a statistical overview of progress towards the sustainable development goals in the EU on May 23. The paper is titled ‘Sustainable Development in the European Union – 2022 monitoring report on progress towards the SDGs in the EU context’.

The report highlighted that the EU has made progress towards most goals over the last five years, which are in line with Commission’s priorities in key policy areas such as the European Green Deal, the Digital Strategy and the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan. It noted that while progress towards reaching some goals was faster than for others, movement away from the sustainable development objectives in the region occurred only in specific areas.

Much like in previous years, the report stated that the EU continued to make the most of progress towards fostering peace and personal security within its territory, improving access to justice and trust in institutions (SDG 16). It noted that the share of the EU population reporting crime, violence and vandalism in their neighbourhoods has fallen from 13.2% in 2015 to 10.9% in 2020.

According to the report, significant progress has been made towards the goals of reducing poverty and social exclusion (SDG 1), the economy and the labour market (SDG 8), clean and affordable energy (SDG 7), and innovation and infrastructure (SDG 9). However, it said that available data partly refer to the pre-pandemic period and therefore do not yet fully capture the impact of the pandemic in the area of poverty (SDG 1).

The report said that the EU was able to reach its 2020 energy efficiency target and appears to be on track towards its 2030 target. Use of renewable energy in the region had increased to 22.1% in 2020, however, imports of fossil fuels still accounts for more than half of the EU’s energy demand. Progress toward SDG 8 on the economy and labour market has also been significant, said the report. The employment rate in the EU went up to 73.1 % in 2021, which exceeds its pre-pandemic level.

Progress towards the goals of health and well-being (SDG 3), life below water (SDG 14), gender equality (SDG 5), sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11), reduced inequalities (SDG 10), responsible consumption and production (SDG 12), quality education (SDG 4), climate action (SDG 13) and zero hunger (SDG 2) was noted to be moderate in the region. The progress in partnerships (SDG 17) and clean water and sanitation (SDG 6) has been neutral, meaning that they were characterised by an almost equal number of sustainable and unsustainable developments. 

The data mentioned in the report reflected that unlike for other goals, not much has been done for life on land (SDG 15) in the past five years. It said that ecosystems and biodiversity in the region continues to remain under pressure from human activities, even though forest area and the terrestrial protected areas in the EU have seen slight increase.

Paolo Gentiloni, European Commissioner for Economy, during the launch event of the sixth edition of Eurostat’s report, said that the United Nations’ SDGs remain a ‘compass’ to guide the EU in overcoming recent crises and to transform its economic model and overall resilience.