Eurostat published today the document “Sustainable development in the European Union — monitoring report on progress towards the SDGs in an EU context, 2023 edition” , 2023 edition).

The report offers a statistical overview of progress towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the EU. The report is published together with the Spring European Semester package, in order to increase its policy relevance and thereby implement the commitment of this Commission to integrate the SDGs into the European Semester, a task entrusted to Commissioner Gentiloni.

The report shows that the EU has made progress towards most targets over the past five years, in line with the Commission’s priorities in key policy areas such as the European Green Deal, the 8th Environment Action Program and the Action Plan for the European pillar of social rights. The data shows that the EU has made significant progress towards achieving many socio-economic goals, while more progress is expected in the environmental sector as Member States implement the ambitious goals of the European Green Deal.

For the first time, the report analyzed the short-term impact of current crises on the SDGs. These include the energy crisis in the context of Russia’s war against Ukraine and the aftershocks of the pandemic. The report also contains a chapter with improved analysis of the spillover effects of EU consumption on the rest of the world.

Key findings

The report shows that, over the past five years, the EU has made significant progress towards three SDGs and moderate progress towards most of the others.

Particularly:

The EU has made the most progress in ensuring decent work and economic growth (SDG 8). In 2022 the EU employment rate reached a new record high of 74.6%, while the EU long-term unemployment rate fell to a new record low.

Significant progress was also made on the goals of reducing poverty (SDG 1) and improving gender equality (SDG 5). The proportion of people overburdened by housing costs has fallen since 2015, while women’s hourly earnings are catching up with men’s.

Good progress has also been made in reducing inequalities (SDG 10), ensuring quality education (SDG 4), promoting peace and personal security on EU soil and improving access to justice and trust in institutions (SDG 16). Income gaps between the richest and poorest population groups have narrowed and the EU is on track to reach its target of 45% of the population with tertiary education. Life in the EU has become safer in recent years, as homicides or murderous attacks and the perception of the frequency of crime, violence and vandalism in European neighborhoods have fallen significantly. In addition, the EU has made positive progress towards the health and well-being targets (SDG 3), despite setbacks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and towards the innovation and infrastructure targets (SDG 9). .

Progress was moderately favorable on trends in the areas of responsible consumption and production (SDG 12), sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11), life in water (SDG 14), zero hunger (SDG 2), clean water and sanitation (SDG 6) and affordable and clean energy (SDG 7).

More progress is expected on three goals – climate action (SDG 13), life on land (SDG 15) and global partnerships (SDG 17) – as EU Member States set their sights on implementing the highest level of ambition in the environmental targets set at EU level. In terms of climate action (SDG 13), the EU has set very ambitious and unprecedented climate targets for 2030 to achieve which, compared to previous trends, more efforts will be required. The EU has already put in place the policy measures to implement these additional efforts, notably through the Fit for 55 package, a review of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) and the effort sharing regulation, which sets binding annual targets for Member States on greenhouse gas emissions. In the energy sector, the EU has also set more ambitious targets for 2030. This means that in the coming years more progress is also expected to be made in the field of energy efficiency and renewable energy in the EU. As for life on land ( SDG 15), although terrestrial protected areas have increased since 2013, the EU still faces a steady decline in populations of common grassland birds and butterflies. Additional efforts needed to reverse ecosystem degradation are foreseen in the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030, the EU Forestry Strategy 2030 launched this year and the EU Soil Strategy, which aims to in 2030 the restoration of degraded lands and territories and the fight against desertification. Regarding cooperation on the goals (SDG 17), the trend partly reflects cyclical effects and, in particular, the increase in public debt due to the COVID-19 crisis.

George Fellidis