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THE EU'S POTENTIAL FOR PROMOTING AN ECO-SOCIAL AGENDA
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Abstract
This paper explores the potential of the European Union (EU) to promote synergies between environmental and social policies, so as to implement an ‘eco-social agenda’. We aim at answering two research questions: 1) What is the approach followed by the EU in order to link and create synergies between these two policy domains?; and 2) What are the governance arrangements through which the EU pursues such a strategy by coordinating actions under the responsibility of various Commission’s Directorates-General (DGs) and by ensuring coordination between different EU institutions and with social stakeholders? From a methodological point of view, we rely on qualitative research methods, notably documentary analysis (scientific literature and policy documents) complemented by 12 interviews to relevant EU actors, including policy-makers, social partners and NGOs. Besides a more theoretical discussion on the approaches that could be followed in order to link environmental and social policies, we explore two concrete case studies: a) Europe 2020 and the European Semester (i.e., the overarching EU strategy for socio-economic policies), and b) the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (ASD) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We draw three main conclusions. First, the EU is following a ‘green growth’ strategy that, while trying to conciliate environmental, social and economic objectives, prioritises the latter (i.e., the pursuit of growth and competitiveness). Second, inter-DGs and inter-institutional coordination to link environmental and social policies is rather ad-hoc, i.e. it takes place on specific initiatives and pieces of legislation (especially through impact assessment exercises). However, these policy areas are not adequately linked in overarching strategies such as Europe 2020. Third, the ASD and the SDGs (duly adapted to the EU context) appear suitable frameworks for the next EU post-2020 strategy. Discussions on this are still on-going and appear rather open, with a strong activism by social stakeholders.
This Report was prepared for the project “Sustainable welfare societies: Assessing linkages between social and environmental policies”, coordinated by NOVA Norwegian Social Research at Oslo Metropolitan University and funded by the Research Council of Norway (grant no. 236930/H20). Link on the Project website: https://blogg.hioa.no/sustainablewelfare/files/2019/06/Sabato-Mandelli.pdf
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In 2015 the European Commission re-launched better regulation with a comprehensive strategy comprising principles of regulatory management, tools, methodological guidance, and oversight. Half-way through the legislature, we appraise the strategy and show how policy and politics intersect. Better regulation raises issues about inter-institutional relations because it is a fundamental exercise in controlling who does what in the law-making process of the European Union. Consequently, we report on how the European Parliament and the Council have responded to the Commission’s strategy. We conclude by taking stock of what has been learned in the period 2015-2017 and point to the regulatory reform issues that will most likely dominate the agenda of the new Commission.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have set the 2030 agenda to transform our world 17 by tackling multiple challenges humankind is facing to ensure well-being, economic prosperity, and environmental protection. In contrast to conventional development agendas focusing on a restricted set of dimensions, the SDGs provide a holistic and multi-dimensional view on development. Hence, interactions among the SDGs may cause diverging results. To analyze the SDG interactions we systematize the identification of synergies and trade offs using official SDG indicator data for 227 countries. A significant positive correlation between a pair of SDG indicators is classified as a synergy while a significant negative correlation is classified as a trade-off. We rank synergies and trade-offs between SDGs pairs on global and country scales in order to identify the most frequent SDG interactions. For a given SDG, positive correlations between indicator pairs were found to
outweigh the negative ones in most countries. Among SDGs the positive and negative correlations between indicator pairs allowed for the identification of particular global patterns. SDG 1 (No poverty) has synergetic relationship with most of the other goals, whereas SDG 12 (Responsible consumption and production) is the goal most commonly associated with trade-offs. The attainment of the SDG agenda will greatly depend on whether the identified synergies among the goals can be leveraged. In addition, the highlighted trade-offs, which are obstacles in achieving the SDGs, need to be negotiated and made structurally non-obstructive by deeper changes in the current strategies.
This chapter focuses on the European Union’s environmental policy, the development of which was characterized by institutional deepening and the substantial expansion of environmental issues covered by EU decisions and regulations. Environmental policy presents a host of challenges for policy-makers, including the choice of appropriate instruments, improvement of implementation performance, and better policy coordination at all levels of policy-making. The chapter points to the continuing adaptations that have been made in these areas. It first considers the historical evolution of environmental policy in the EU before discussing the main actors in EU environmental policy-making, namely: the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, the European Parliament, the Court of Justice of the European Union, and environmental interest groups. The chapter also looks at the EU as an international actor.
Introduction
Climate change is one of the major challenges facing humanity in the twenty-first century. Impacts and risks will grow over time and call for a double response: adaptation to new, often more severe climatic conditions; and a major transition to a low-carbon economy. Awareness of the potentially huge implications of climate change has grown in recent years, but attention from policy makers is still surprisingly limited outside the realm of environment and energy policy. This lack of attention is evident not least within the social policy community.
It is often observed that climate change tends to hit hardest those who are poor and vulnerable. Poor people suffer more than rich people and poor countries suffer more than rich countries. Policy measures to halt climate change can also put disproportionate burdens on the less affluent. These social dimensions of climate change need to be addressed not only in view of future social and economic problems but also because social policy has the potential to affect the ways in which individual countries and the global community respond to climate change.
In this chapter, I focus on social policy and climate policy in the EU. Special attention is given to two social policy areas with important implications for climate policy: income inequality and employment. EU member states have long since had well-established social policy regimes and the EU has also pioneered more extensive climate change mitigation policies. Taken together this makes the EU experience potentially instructive for other regions as well.
I argue that the future success of EU climate change mitigation policies will be dependent on successful social policy design. Social investment policies in particular can provide important backing. I also contend that successful climate policies have important features in common with social investment policies. Both policy areas build on a similar orientation towards investment in the future. Both policy areas also share a preoccupation for the quality of life and a tense relationship to the neoliberal economics paradigm.
European policy makers typically describe social and environmental targets as ‘mutually supportive’. Climate policy and social policy are supposed to develop in tandem within a broader context of sustainable development.
This chapter addresses the implications of climate change for welfare institutions in Europe. We argue that the linkages between social policy and climate change have consequences for what it means to make welfare states sustainable. Against this background, the chapter highlights four types of issues or questions that the research agenda on climate change and the welfare state needs to address: questions or issues of justice and distribution related to the unequal human, social and territorial impacts of climate change; the social consequences of climate policy; welfare state adaptations necessary to meet the direct and indirect consequences of climate change; and political conditions conducive to the reconciliation of ecological and social objectives in advanced and mature welfare states, including a shift towards forms of production, transport and consumption that are less harmful for the climate In conclusion, the chapter offers some reflections on what it will take to make a lasting move towards low-carbon societies in Europe and suggests that welfare state institutions may have a facilitating role in this process. Relatedly, we stress the need for a higher degree of cross-fertilization between scholarship on climate and energy policy and social policy.