# SWD_2016_0390_FIN.ENG.xhtml.1_EN_autre_document_travail_service_part1_v6.docx

european flagEUROPEAN COMMISSION

Strasbourg, 22.11.2016

SWD(2016) 390 final

COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT

Key European action supporting the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals

Accompanying the document

Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions

Next steps for a sustainable European future: European Union action for sustainability

{COM(2016) 739 final}

1. INTRODUCTION

This staff working document gives an overview of key existing European initiatives related to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It summarises for each of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) what the main actions are that the European Union is undertaking in terms of both domestically oriented and external actions.

The overview presented is not exhaustive, but aims to highlight in particular the most recent and relevant initiatives contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. As the SDGs are interlinked, many EU actions contribute to several SDGs. In order to avoid too many repetitions EU actions have only been highlighted for those Sustainable Development Goals to which their contribution is the most relevant.

The overview below makes clear that the EU priorities, policies, funds and other actions cover all Sustainable Development Goals and provide a significant contribution to their implementation, both within the EU and through EU external action. They put the European Union on the right track to achieve a sustainable European future. Continued efforts and mainstreaming of the S in new policy initiatives will be needed to achieve the SDGs, which are often demanding and have a long-term horizon.

In the Commission Communication accompanying this staff working document, the Commission has confirmed its commitment to sustainable development and its intention to further mainstreaming it into its policy-making. To achieve this, the EU will need to put its enabling policies and funds into practice and showcase concrete results on the ground. For that - as indicated in the Commission Communication accompanying this staff working document – governance instruments including better regulation tools will be used to ensure that EU policies continue to be fit for purpose. Effective implementation of existing EU policies, of which many are linked to sustainability objectives in the long term, is also needed to continue progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals within the EU and globally, including in developing countries.

The achievement of many Sustainable Development Goals will also depend largely on action taken in Member States, as in many areas the EU supports, coordinates and complements Member States' policies or has a shared responsibility. In line with the principle of subsidiarity, the EU can in areas outside its exclusive competence only act if the objectives of the proposed action cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States at central, regional or local level but can rather, by reason of the scale or effects of the proposed action, be better achieved at Union level.

A sustainable future in the European Union can only be realised if all work together - the Commission, the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, the Member States, businesses, civil society organisations and citizens. EU action is to be coordinated also with our external partners bilaterally and at global level, especially to achieve further progress in developing countries, where many challenges to meet the Sustainable Development Goals are persisting.

2. KEY EUROPEAN ACTIONS SUPPORTING THE 2030 AGENDA AND THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

| Sustainable development goals | Examples of key existing European actions in this field |
| --- | --- |
| | External actions | Domestic/EU oriented actions |
| 1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere | The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: jobs, growth and investment; a deeper and fairer internal market; a deeper and fairer economic and monetary union; migration; a stronger global actor |
| | - One of the priorities of EU external action is to foster the sustainable economic, social and environmental development of developing countries, with the primary aim of eradicating poverty.


  - The EU development cooperation policy: the 2005 European Consensus on Development and its 2016 update committing the Council, European Parliament and Commission to a common vision on development policy with the primary objective of poverty eradication in the context of sustainable development. The Agenda for Change, the basis for the EU's development policy, has informed the current programming period 2014-2020, and addresses among its priorities human development through a multi-dimensional approach to poverty. The EU's assistance in the framework of development cooperation policies follows a rights-based approach, encompassing all human rights, and focuses on Least Developed Countries and Lower Income Countries, where extreme poverty is mostly concentrated. The overall contribution to poverty reduction is significant, via the contributions to macroeconomic stabilisation, improved public finance management and trade frameworks, strengthened transport networks and increased public expenditure in social sectors.



  - The EU and its Member States are committed to delivering on their Official Development Aid commitments, including the collective commitment of 0.7% of GNI by 2030 and the new commitment of 0.15% of GNI by 2020 and 0.2% of GNI by 2030 to least developed countries. EU budget support is providing predictable resources for partner government's budgets for the eradication of poverty, pursuit of sustainable economic growth and the consolidation of democracies.


  - The European neighbourhood policy inter alia seeks to address sources of instability across sectors. As poverty is a root of instability, it makes a determined effort to support economies and improve prospects for the local population.


  - With its trade and investment policy the EU is committed to actively helping people around the world trade their way out of poverty. Europe has opened its markets to all imports from the world's poorest countries notably through its unrivalled Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) and Economic Partnership Agreements, and works actively to

  help developing countries

  build the capacity to take advantage of trade in particular through its Aid for Trade assistance.


  - The external dimension of the EU climate policy, focusing on the implementation of the Paris Agreement - the legally binding global climate deal - will through its actions in third countries help fight poverty in those countries.


  - The EU provides needs-based humanitarian assistance to save lives, reduce suffering, reduce risks and restore human dignity. EU humanitarian aid covers intervention areas such as

  food

  and

  nutrition

  ,

  shelter

  ,

  health care

  , water,

  sanitation

  and hygiene (WASH), disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation and education in emergencies. The Action Plan for Resilience in Crisis Prone Countries 2013-2020 sets the ways forward for a more effective EU collaborative action on building resilience, bringing together humanitarian action, long-term development cooperation and on-going political engagement, thereby contributing to poverty eradication. Resilience aims at protecting vulnerable populations from the shocks and stresses that keep people in poverty whilst providing services, livelihoods and opportunities to address the underlying causes of their vulnerability – to "leave no-one behind". These goals are addressed in the Action Plan on the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, which reflects the implementation of the Sendai Framework across all relevant EU policies and promotes a disaster risk-informed approach for all EU policies, and in the EU Aid Volunteers Initiative that works together with volunteers in vulnerable communities.


  - The European Union has adopted a new development approach to forced displacement, based on joint engagement of host governments, international donors, humanitarian and development actors, local communities, civil society, diaspora and the displaced themselves. It aims to help people to cope with future crisis and shocks by investing in peoples capacities for self-reliance and resilience, while targeting and supporting the most vulnerable.


  - EU funding instruments such as the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, the European Neighbourhood Instrument, the European Development Fund, the Development Cooperation Instrument and the Humanitarian Aid funding instrument. | - The EU supports and complements the Member States' policies in the fields of social inclusion and social protection.


  - The Europe 2020 Strategy and more specifically the headline target to reduce poverty and social exclusion by lifting at least 20 million people out of the risk of poverty and social exclusion. Progress towards this Europe 2020 target is encouraged and monitored through the

  European Semester

  , the EU's yearly cycle of economic and budgetary coordination. The Annual Convention for Inclusive Growth has been launched involving a wide range of stakeholders in discussing policy initiatives designed to help reach the 2020 target.


  - The Commission is moreover working towards a concrete European pillar of social rights, which will identify a number of essential principles which will serve as a compass for upwards convergence as regards social and labour market performances, focusing on the needs and challenges in the field of employment and social policies. One of the main areas covered is adequate social protection, including income support and access to essential services, together with other relevant principles to combat poverty, including inter alia those on fairly remunerated wages, prevention of the misuse or abuse of precarious and non-permanent employment relationships, ensuring transitions from temporary to open-ended contracts.


  - The proposed European Solidarity Corps will enable young people across the EU to volunteer their help where it is needed most, for example related to activities addressing social challenges, such as social exclusion and poverty.


  - The European Disability Strategy 2010-2020 aims at supporting the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the EU. One key issue is reducing the current existing gap on poverty risk between those with disabilities and the rest of the population.


  - Addressing rural poverty, the Common Agricultural Policy aims inter alia to ensure a decent standard of living for farmers and viable rural communities. Agriculture is a key vector for poverty reduction in particular in rural areas.


  - The Common Fisheries Policy aims for a fair standard of living for fishing communities.


  - The EU Cohesion Policy is the EU’s main investment policy, whose core mission is to achieve economic, social and territorial cohesion by reducing disparities between the levels of development of the various regions. For the 2014-2020 period, it provides about EUR 350 billion of investments into smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. It has a thematic objective dedicated to promoting social inclusion and combatting poverty and discrimination. It contributes to poverty reduction through its investments in housing, employment creation, regeneration of deprived urban and rural areas, the modernisation of public services and many other areas. Finally, sustainable development is a legally binding cross-cutting principle, which is mainstreamed at all stages of the implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds.


  - The EU Civil Protection policy aims at strengthening resilience to disaster at all levels of EU Member States. It aims to strengthen the cooperation and coordination within the EU in the field of civil protection, in order to improve the effectiveness of systems for preventing, preparing for and responding to natural and man-made disasters.


  - EU funding instruments such as the European Structural Investment Funds
  1
  ; the

  Employment and Social Innovation Programme

  ; the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived; the Civil Protection Mechanism and the Instrument for Emergency Support within the Union. |
| 2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture | The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: jobs, growth and investment; a deeper and fairer internal market; a deeper and fairer economic and monetary union; migration; a stronger global actor |
| | - The EU development cooperation policy: the Agenda for Change focuses on sectors setting the foundations for inclusive and sustainable growth thanks to their multiplier impacts on developing countries' economies, such as sustainable agriculture and access to energy. This involves inter alia support to agricultural growth in developing countries with a focus on small-scale farmers, promoting sustainable agricultural practices, fighting under nutrition and stunting, and strengthening resilience to climate, economic and political shocks of the most vulnerable populations. A coherent set of EU development policies further defines the scope of EU action on food and nutrition security, namely the 2010 EU Policy framework to assist developing countries in addressing food security challenges, the 2012 Communication on Resilience and the 2013 Communication on Nutrition. The EU also pursues human development actions to tackle hunger, notably on malnutrition (EU Food and Nutrition intervention and global initiatives like Scaling Up Nutrition) and on ensuring sustainable and climate-resilient agriculture, contributing to meeting food demand.


  - The EU provides needs-based humanitarian assistance to the people hit by man-made and natural disasters with particular attention to the most vulnerable victims. This also includes the provision of nutritious and safe food, such as emergency food assistance and treatment of severe acute under-nutrition in crisis situations. The Action Plan for Resilience in Crisis Prone Countries 2013-2020 includes food and nutrition security as priority areas. The EU also supports the new international Food Assistance Convention (FAC), which promotes an up to-date and modernised food assistance approach.


  - The EU Trade and Investment Policy: the EU is leading the efforts to tackle agricultural export competition which would support farmers world-wide. In this context the EU was instrumental in the adoption in 2015 of the Nairobi WTO agreement to "eliminate all forms of agriculture export subsidies". The EU is fully open to all products from least developed countries and has included open terms in its economic partnership agreement (trade preferences, Economic Partnership Agreements). The EU promotes policy coherence for development in relation to agriculture and trade, and EU funds are no longer used to subsidise exports outside the EU. Also in its other trade and investment relations with third countries the EU pays particular attention to food security, sustainable agriculture and fisheries, as it the case for the European Neighbourhood Policy, the Enlargement policy, the Common Agricultural Policy and the Common Fisheries Policy.


  -Through its work on food policy at multilateral and bilateral level and the use of the “Better Training for Safer Food” training tool (BTSF) the Commission builds capacity in third countries to increase the understanding of international and European sanitary and phytosanitary standards. The EU agricultural and sanitary and phytosanitary standards policies intend to secure a sustainable food value chain for all.


  - Further support to third countries is provided through the EU's research and innovation policy. Horizon 2020 for example supports the EU-Africa Research and Innovation Partnership on food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture as well as the EU-China Food, Agriculture and Biotechnology Flagship Initiative.


  - EU funding instruments such as the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, European Neighbourhood Instrument, European Development Fund, Development Cooperation Instrument, the Humanitarian Aid funding instrument and the external component of Horizon 2020. | - The Common Agricultural Policy is helping European farmers to contribute meeting the food demand of more than 500 million Europeans and on international markets (agro-food exports are worth over EUR 120 billion). The common agricultural policy's main objectives are to provide a stable, sustainably produced supply of safe and high quality food at affordable prices for consumers. Sustainability was and will remain a key factor in respectively the past and future reforms of the common agricultural policy. It supports several sustainable agricultural practices through its green direct payments and rural development measures, such as agri-environment and organic farming measures. It also promotes healthy diets among schoolchildren through the EU School Fruit and Vegetables and Milk Scheme.


  - The Common Fisheries Policy aims to ensure that fishing and aquaculture are environmentally sustainable, competitive and economically viable, contribute to the availability of food supplies, with a fair standard of living for those who depend on fishing activities and aims to promote aquaculture.


  - The EU environmental and climate policy aims to ensure an environmentally friendly agriculture in Europe thereby contributing to sustainable agriculture, in view of the protection, preservation and improvement in the quality of water, air and soil, in the abundance of bio-diversity and in preservation and enrichment of the EU's landscape. Examples include the 7th Environment Action Programme (the agreed framework for EU environment policy until 2020), the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020, or European rules on the sustainable use of pesticides which underline the link with health policy aspects. To improve resource efficiency in food production and reduce impact on water resources, the EU is also promoting sustainable nutrients management in agriculture. The National Emission Ceilings Directive for air pollutants, the Member States' targets to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions as well as the proposal to integrate the land use sector into the EU 2030 Climate and Energy Framework are policy tools that incentivise Member States to take additional sustainable action in their agriculture sectors.


  - The EU is also contributing through its innovation policy. For example, a European Innovation Partnership for Agricultural productivity and Sustainability was set up. Also, Horizon 2020, the EU Research and Innovation programme invests in projects related to the societal challenges of food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture. A new activity to mobilise resources and stakeholders around a common research and innovation agenda for food and nutrition security is FOOD 2030. FOOD 2030 will explore at EU level what is needed to transform and future-proof our food systems to be sustainable, resilient, competitive, diverse, responsible and performant in their provision of accessible, healthy and sustainable food and diets for all.


  - EU food policy aims to ensure all food marketed in the EU is safe through coherent farm-to-table measures and adequate monitoring. The EU's regulations and standards contribute in a cross-cutting way to related policies on agriculture and environment. The policy on food waste, food information, food reformulation, food safety and crisis preparedness are all relevant examples in this respect. For example, the Better Training for Safer Food initiative provides for tailor-made training at EU level to ensure the correct implementation of EU sanitary and phytosanitary standards and foster harmonisation between its Member States. Also, EU nutrition initiatives include work with Member States on an action plan addressing childhood obesity.


  - EU funding instruments such as the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund, the European Structural and Investment Funds, the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived, the Programme for the Environment and Climate Action (LIFE), Horizon 2020 and the Emergency Support Instrument. |
| 3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages | The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: jobs, growth and investment; a digital single market; a deeper and fairer internal market; a deeper and fairer economic and monetary union; migration; a stronger global actor |
| | - In its bilateral and multilateral cooperation the EU pursues cooperation on health issues with third countries and international organisations, setting a general framework for cooperation on public health. This is done mainly through the EU development cooperation policy, the European Neighbourhood Policy and the EU Enlargement Policy. The EU for example promotes the reduction of communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDs, hepatitis & tuberculosis in its neighbouring countries. Moreover, in its development cooperation policy and its partnerships at the global level, the EU favours broad sector support to strengthen health systems and work towards universal health coverage, allowing countries to tackle issues such as health workforce, health sector financing, maternal and child mortality, infectious and non-communicable diseases, access to sexual and reproductive healthcare services, and health crises prevention, preparedness and response. Also, at the global level the EU supports global health initiatives such as the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (Gavi) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).


  - The EU also supports health research in developing countries. It for example participates in the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) to support collaborative research that accelerates the clinical development of new or improved interventions to prevent or treat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected infectious diseases in sub-Saharan Africa Programme.


  - The EU also promotes a global health agenda to have better access to medicines in developing countries, including support for a permanent waiver for least developed countries for pharmaceutical products under the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of IPRs (TRIPs).


  - The EU is moreover actively participating to the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020, with a focus on low-income countries which are presenting the highest road traffic fatality rates.


  - The EU provides needs-based humanitarian assistance to the people hit by man-made and natural disasters. Health is both a core sector of humanitarian aid interventions, and the main reference for measuring overall humanitarian response. Humanitarian health programmes seek to save lives, and limit disability and disease in emergencies by ensuring access to free health services. The European Commission and the countries participating in the EU Civil Protection Mechanism have launched the European Medical Corps, to help mobilise medical and public health teams and equipment for sudden emergencies, inside and outside the EU.


  - The EU also cooperates with the World Health Organization (WHO), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and other relevant UN bodies as well as G7/G20.


  - The EU and its 28 Member States are Parties to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) with reporting commitments and obligations and the EU has recently ratified the Illicit Trade protocol adopted under this Framework Convention.


  - The EU cooperates internationally in the fight on antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which is recognised as a global threat at UN level and supports the implementation of the World Health Organization Global Action Plan on antimicrobial resistance. The Commission is contributing towards global antimicrobial resistance efforts, working with partner countries outside the EU and through various global and regional activities.


  - The EU supports affordable and essential medicines and vaccines for all. The EU orphan medicinal legislation has triggered investments for the development of medicines for communicable diseases for instance, and the European Medicines Agency gives scientific opinions in the context of World Health Organization cooperation for the evaluation of certain medicinal products intended for markets outside the EU. For well-known substances, the EU also promotes the World Health Organization Prequalification programme for vaccines.


  - The EU supports the global implementation of the International Health Regulations, on cross-border health threats and outbreak response, and contributes to global initiatives to strengthen preparedness and response to health emergencies.



  - EU funding instruments such as the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, the European Neighbourhood Instrument, the European Development Fund, the Development Cooperation Instrument, the Civil Protection Mechanism, the Humanitarian Aid funding instrument and the external component of Horizon 2020. | - The EU supports, coordinates and complements the Member States in their health policy. Member States have the main responsibility for their health care policy and for the organisation of their healthcare. Universal health coverage is an objective of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Several EU policies are contributing to healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages:


  - In relation to addressing communicable diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and hepatitis, the Commission supports Member States and civil society organisations at combatting these major serious diseases through joint actions and action plans in the EU and its neighbouring countries. The Commission is updating and extending its work to help meet the target of ending AIDS and tuberculosis and combating hepatitis. In addition, the EU has specific responsibilities to coordinate action to address serious cross-border health threats, which cover communicable disease health threats and other health threats (biological, chemical, environmental).


  - In relation to chronic, non-communicable diseases and mental health and well-being the Commission co-funds joint actions with Member States on chronic diseases and ageing, mental health, cancer, dementia, physical activity, nutrition and obesity and concluded a joint action on alcohol under the Health Programme. 



  - European Reference Networks are facilitating access to diagnosis and treatment of rare and complex diseases across Member States. The EU is moreover investing in the health workforce which includes joint actions to support Member States to invest in health workforce planning and health workforce skills analysis.


  -In the area of vaccination, the Commission supports the Member States in shaping measures to address scarcity of vaccines and to increase vaccine coverage.


  - The EU regulates on tobacco control (for example on advertising and product regulation) and is also working with the Member States on the implementation of the related legislation through a joint action under the Health programme.



  - The EU aims for effective, accessible and resilient health systems and has defined ‘increasing accessibility to healthcare’ as one of the three pillars for an EU agenda for health systems. In the context of the European Semester the EU has developed country-specific knowledge on health systems, complemented by its "State of Health in the EU" Cycle. It cooperates with Member States in this respect inter alia on eHealth, health technology assessment and rare diseases through the cross-border care legislation.


  - The EU is also active in relation to antimicrobial resistance: an Action Plan on antimicrobial resistance is in place. An evaluation taking place in 2016 supports continued action at the EU level and follow up actions are planned. It is based on a 'One Health' approach taking into account all potential sources and all sectorial aspects.  



  - In relation to serious cross-border threats to health, the EU has a framework in place to improve preparedness and strengthen the capacity to coordinate response to health emergencies across the EU, including cooperation on antimicrobial resistance and helping Member States implement the International Health Regulations. This framework includes an early warning and response system and a mechanism for the coordination of response.


  - The EU youth strategy also pays particular attention to the health and well-being of the young people. The Commission also supports Member States with the implementation of the Action Plan of Childhood Obesity and of the Action Plan on Youth Drinking and on Heavy Episodic Drinking.


  - The proposed European Solidarity Corps will enable young people across the EU to volunteer their help where it is needed most, for example related to activities addressing social challenges, such as health and demographic challenges.


  - With environmental stressors such as air and noise pollution having significant impacts on health, the EU climate and environmental policy also increases health and well-being, for example through its ambitious climate policies as well as through specific air quality, noise, and industrial emissions legislation or through its water policy.


  - EU Cohesion Policy is the EU’s main investment policy, whose core mission is to achieve economic, social and territorial cohesion, by reducing disparities between EU regions, also in terms of endowment of health services. EU Cohesion Policy has a thematic objective dedicated to promoting social inclusion and tackle poverty and discrimination by for example investing in health and social infrastructure, reducing inequalities in terms of health status and promoting social inclusion through improved access to social, cultural and recreational services. In addition, there is a funding precondition (i.e. ex-ante conditionality) on existence of a policy framework on health, which ensures that the necessary prerequisites for effective and efficient EU investment are in place. Finally, sustainable development is a legally binding cross-cutting principle, which is mainstreamed at all stages of the implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds.


  - The EU is promoting research and innovation with the framework programme Horizon 2020 which invests in innovative solutions that help tackle the adverse effects on human health related to pollution, climate change, and transport safety. Horizon 2020 for example contributes EUR 1 billion to the fight against antimicrobial resistance. Innovation in the healthcare sector is also supported via the Innovative Medicines Initiative, which was set up as a joint undertaking between the EU and the pharmaceutical industry, as well as via the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing and the Health Knowledge and Innovation Community within the European Institute for Innovation and Technology (EIT).


  - The Commission is moreover working towards a concrete European pillar of social rights, which will identify a number of essential principles which will serve as a compass for upwards convergence as regards social and labour market performances, focusing on the needs and challenges in the field of employment and social policies. One of the main areas covered is adequate social protection, including health care and sickness benefits, and long term care, and access to essential services.


  - The EU set a road safety target of halving European road deaths by 50 % by 2020. A mix of measures aims at making users, vehicles and infrastructure safer.


  - Under the Union Civil Protection Mechanism, the EU is contributing to the development and better integration of transnational detection and early warning and alert systems, in order to enable a rapid response, also in relation to health issues. To help mobilise medical and public health teams and equipment for sudden emergencies inside and outside the EU, the Commission together with the countries participating in the EU Civil Protection Mechanism have launched the European Medical Corps.


  - The European Disability Strategy 2010-2020 contains actions to foster access to health services and related facilities for persons with disabilities.


  - The EU is strengthening the ecosystem of social economy enterprises and actors in the EU, a lot of them working in the health sector and bringing innovative concrete added value to it.


  - EU funding instruments such as the Health Programme, the European Structural and Investment Funds, the Programme for the Environment and Climate Action (LIFE), Horizon 2020 (including through the European Institute of Innovation & Technology EIT), the Fund for European Aid to the most Deprived, the Civil Protection Mechanism and the Emergency Support Instrument. |
| 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning opportuni-ties for all | The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: jobs, growth and investment; a digital single market; a deeper and fairer economic and monetary union, a deeper and fairer internal market; a stronger global actor |
| | - In its cooperation with partner countries the EU pursues its support to education mainly in the framework of the EU development cooperation policy, the European Neighbourhood Policy and the EU Enlargement Policy. The Agenda for Change for example sets a target of minimum 20 % expenditure on social inclusion and human development. These policies recognise the vital role of education and training in building the foundation for human, social and inclusive economic development. Education and training is also an essential means to address wider global challenges related to peace, stability and prosperity, to strengthen societal resilience, pluralism and coexistence, and also to prevent and counter violent extremism and radicalisation. Improving gender equality is a long-standing priority in EU's education programmes. In addition, the EU supports global education initiatives such as the Global Partnership for Education.


  - The EU has an active policy for cooperation in education (higher education and training in particular) and training with third countries aiming to enhance the development, modernisation and internationalisation of education and training in the EU and beyond, inter alia by promoting peer-to-peer learning and comparison with education systems worldwide. The EU's Erasmus+ mobility and inter-university cooperation programme is an invaluable instrument for establishing lasting academic and cultural ties, which also promote the EU in partner countries. The programme also seeks to build the capacities of higher education institutions in developing partner countries. Overall Erasmus+ funding for developing regions will support around 150,000 mobility exchanges of university students and staff, 1000 capacity building projects in higher education and around 27,000 scholarships for Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degrees, primarily for partner countries across the world. Another example is the support provided to higher education in Africa through the Joint Africa-EU Strategy, notably contributing to the harmonisation and enhancement of higher education on the African continent.


  - The European neighbourhood policy and the EU Enlargement Policy invests in the development, modernisation and internationalisation of higher education and improved student and academic mobility in the EU’s neighbouring partner countries.


  - The EU provides needs-based humanitarian assistance to the people hit by man-made and natural disasters with particular attention to the most vulnerable victims. EU humanitarian aid helps children affected by conflict and disasters through, among others, support to 'Education in Emergencies', which offers educational services and measures support to children in conflicts and complex emergencies.


  - As Parties to the UNESCO 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, the EU and its Member States also promote the ratification and implementation of the Convention by third countries.


  - EU funding instruments such as the European Development Fund, the Development Cooperation Instrument, the European Neighbourhood Instrument, the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, the Humanitarian Aid funding instrument, the Partnership Instrument and the external component of Horizon 2020. Education is also a key dimension European Union Trust Funds such as the Regional Trust Fund for the Syrian crisis (the Madad Fund) and the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa. | - Each EU Member State is responsible for its own education and training system. EU-level policy cooperation is designed to support, coordinate or supplement Member States' actions in addressing common challenges.


  - A key element is the strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training (ET 2020), which is a forum for the exchange and dissemination of best practices and support for policy reforms. Member States agreed under Education and Training 2020 seven benchmarks that are monitored annually, on early school-leaving; tertiary education attainment; early childhood education and care; underachievement in reading, maths and science; employment rate of recent graduates and adult participation in learning. Since end 2015 reinforced attention is also given to inclusive education, equality, equity, non-discrimination and the promotion of civic competences.


  - The new Skills Agenda for Europe launches a number of actions to ensure that the right training, the right skills and the right support is available to people in the European Union. It aims at making better use of the skills that are available; equip people with the needed skills to help them find quality jobs and improve their life chances through making vocational education and training first choice and ensure upskilling pathways. The EU invites Members States, social partners, the industry and other stakeholders to work together to improve the quality and relevance of skills formation; make skills more visible and comparable; and to improve skills intelligence and information for better career choices. The new

  Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition

  is the new flag ship initiative.


  - The Erasmus+ programme is a key contributor at EU level on skills enhancement, improved career prospects and employability of young people, while increasing understanding of different cultures, by supporting learning mobility across borders of students, trainees, apprentices, volunteers and other youth exchanges. It will support at least 4 million mobilities in the period 2014-2020.


  -The Commission is moreover working towards a concrete European pillar of social rights, which will identify a number of essential principles which will serve as a compass for upwards convergence as regards social and labour market performances. One of the proposed rights is that “all persons shall have access to quality education and training throughout the life course”. Moreover, other related areas covered are equal opportunities and access to the labour market, which pay particular attention to skills, education and lifelong learning.


  - EU Cohesion Policy has a thematic objective dedicated to education, training and vocational training for skills and lifelong learning. In addition, sustainable development is a legally binding cross-cutting principle, which is mainstreamed at all stages of the implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds. EU cohesion funds support inclusive, non-segregated and equal access to education.


  - The Europe 2020 Strategy includes a specific “education headline target” to reduce the rates of early school leaving below 10% and to ensure that at least 40% of 30-34 year-olds complete higher education. Progress towards these Europe 2020 targets is encouraged and monitored through the

  European Semester

  , the EU's yearly cycle of economic and budgetary coordination.


  - In line with the UNESCO 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, the EU promotes its implementation across its EU wide policies.


  - The Common Agricultural Policy provides, through its rural development programs, possibilities for training and other types of activities (workshops, coaching, demonstration projects etc.) to persons engaged in the agricultural, food and forestry sectors, land managers and SMEs operating in rural areas.


  - With regard to culture, the role of the EU is to help 

  address common challenges

  in its Member States, such as the promotion of cultural diversity, including through education. As Party to the UNESCO 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, the EU promotes its implementation across all its policies.


  - EU funding instruments such as the European Structural and Investment Funds, the Union Programme For Education, Training, Youth and Sport (Erasmus+ programme), Horizon 2020 (including through the European Institute of Innovation & Technology EIT) and the Emergency Support Instrument. |
| 5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls | The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: justice and fundamental rights; a stronger global actor and a union of democratic change |
| | - Gender equality is at the core of European values and enshrined in the EU political and legal framework. The EU strategy and action plan to promote gender equality and women's empowerment 2016-2020 aims at transforming the lives of girls and women through EU external relations by focusing on ensuring girls and women’s physical integrity, promoting their economic and social rights and their empowerment and strengthening their voice and participation.


  - The EU pursues a twin-track approach to gender equality in its development cooperation policy: gender mainstreaming and gender specific actions in a number of areas. Activities range from capacity-building, support to women's empowerment, disseminating information on gender equality through guidelines to best practices and awareness raising.


  - The EU Global Strategy on Foreign and Security Policy is emphasizing the importance of mainstreaming human rights and gender issues across policy sectors and institutions. Gender Equality is thus to be included in the political and policy dialogue with partner countries. For example there are EU guidelines on violence against women and girls. Gender equality is also integrated in the EU crisis management missions and operations.


  - The European Neighbourhood Policy applies a gender mainstreaming policy in its relations with third countries. In the EU enlargement process, gender equality is included as one of the requirements in the action plans that the European Commission is following up in the context of accession negotiations.


  - To ensure the highest quality of EU humanitarian aid policy, gender issues are always considered in EU humanitarian operations, for example through the EU humanitarian Gender-Age Marker and through support to programmes and projects linked to reproductive health in emergencies, including sexual and gender-based violence. The EU Action Plan for Resilience includes a gender perspective by underlining the role of women in building resilience in households and communities affected by crisis.


  - EU Trade policy supports the external projection of the EU's work on Corporate Social Responsibility including through supportive provisions in its trade agreements.


  - EU funding instruments such as the European Neighbourhood instrument, the Instrument for Pre- Accession Assistance, the European Development Fund, the European Instrument for Democracy & Human Rights, the Partnership Instrument and the Humanitarian Aid funding instrument. | - The EU has made significant progress over the last decades with regard to gender equality. This is mainly thanks to equal treatment legislation, gender mainstreaming (integration of the gender perspective into all other policies), and specific policy and funding measures for the advancement of gender equality.


  - The strategic engagement for gender equality (2016-2019) sets the framework for the EU's future work towards gender equality, and is accompanied by proposed concrete actions. It sets out the Commission's work plans towards improving gender equality, in increasing female labour market participation, reducing the gender pay, earnings and pension gaps and thus fighting poverty among women, promoting equality between women and men in decision-making, and combating gender-based violence and protecting and supporting victims.


  - As part of the European Semester, the EU's yearly cycle of economic and budgetary coordination, several Member States have been receiving Country-Specific Recommendations in the area of gender equality, including the availability of quality affordable (full-time) childcare, reducing financial disincentives to work or work more for second earners, the gender pay gap and the harmonisation of retirement age for men and women.


  - The Commission is moreover working towards a concrete European pillar of social rights, which will identify a number of essential principles which will serve as a compass for upwards convergence as regards social and labour market performances, focusing on the needs and challenges in the field of employment and social policies. Some of the main areas covered include equal opportunities, gender equality and work-life balance.


  - The EU prepares an

  Annual Report on equality between women and men

  in order to monitor progress made in the area of gender equality at EU level.


  - The Commission believes that Corporate Social Responsibility is important for the sustainability, competitiveness, and innovation of EU enterprises and the EU economy and as such supports businesses to be and to become socially responsible, inter alia through the respect of gender equality in businesses.


  - In the context of EU Cohesion Policy's efforts to achieve economic, territorial and social cohesion, a range of cross-cutting principles are mainstreamed: there are legally binding ex-ante conditionalities - including a horizontal one on the promotion of equality between men and women, the integration of a gender perspective and non-discrimination based on sex - which are determining the access to dedicated funding from the European Structural and Investment Funds. In addition, cohesion policy has a thematic objective dedicated to social inclusion, poverty and discrimination. Supporting women in work is another priority.


  - EU funding instruments such as the Justice Programme, the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme, Horizon 2020, the European Structural and Investment Funds and the Emergency Support Instrument. |
| 6. Ensure availability and sustainable manage-ment of water and sanitation for all | The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: jobs, growth and investment; a stronger global actor. |
| | - The EU in its external relations, its development cooperation policy (through the European consensus and the Agenda for Change), the European Neighbourhood Policy and the EU Enlargement Policy is supporting third countries in the achievement of this sustainable development goal through bilateral assistance programmes or regional initiatives. The EU Enlargement Policy promotes the extension of EU norms to candidate countries covering water quality, waste water treatment, but also water management and flood prevention. A concrete example of such a regional initiative is the Sustainable Water Integrated Management (SWIM) programme, a Regional Technical Assistance Programme that contributes to the dissemination and effective implementation of integrated water resource management policies and sustainable practices in the Southern Mediterranean Region. From the development cooperation perspective, support to the water sector is not only focusing on access to safe drinking water and sanitation, wastewater and pollution, but also on integrated water management including for transboundary basins, contributing to water diplomacy objectives, and on cross-sectoral coordination with an improved framework for investments in multi-purpose infrastructure. Given the food-water-energy nexus, water and sanitation are important components in a range of actions in thematic fields such as rural development, energy, climate adaptation and mitigation, regional integration, environment and peace and security.


  - Horizon 2020, the Union framework programme for research and innovation supports European water research and innovation, which is an important driver in support of the implementation of sustainable solutions to several water challenges in different part of the world.


  - The EU provides needs-based humanitarian assistance to the people hit by man-made and natural disasters, also in the field of

  water, sanitation and hygiene

  (WASH).


  - EU funding instruments such as the Development Cooperation Instrument, the European Development Fund, the European Neighbourhood instrument, the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, the Partnership Instrument, the Humanitarian Aid funding instrument and the external component of Horizon 2020. | - Protection of water resources, water ecosystems and of the water we drink and bathe in is at the cornerstones of EU environmental policy, as confirmed in the 7th Environment Action Programme (the agreed framework for EU environment policy until 2020). The EU water policy provides for a Framework to comprehensively address water protection and for achieving good ecological status for inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater. It comprises regulation including on drinking water, bathing water and urban waste water, prevention of pollution caused by nitrates, industrial emissions, pesticides and persistent organic pollutants. EU air pollution policy reduces deposition of pollutants leading to eutrophication and acidification. The EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change recognizes sustainable water management as critical to addressing the impacts of climate change in Europe. The transition to a circular economy should also lead to greater resource efficiency for example by improving the conditions for water re-use in several sectors.


  - The European Innovation Partnership on Water facilitates the development of innovative solutions to address major European and global water challenges. At the same time, the European Innovation Partnership on Water supports the creation of market opportunities for these innovations, both inside and outside of Europe.


  - The Common Agricultural Policy aims to promote a sustainable management of natural resources. One of the priority areas for rural development is restoring, preserving and enhancing ecosystems related to agriculture and forestry, including improving water management and increasing efficiency in water use by agriculture.


  - EU Cohesion Policy has a thematic objective dedicated to preserving and protecting the environment and promoting resource efficiency and in the period 2014-2020 invests almost EUR 15 billion on water management, with a focus on improving infrastructure for drinking water supply and wastewater treatment in the less developed regions. In addition, there is a funding pre-condition (i.e. ex-ante conditionality) related to the correct implementation of the EU water legislation, which ensures that the necessary conditions are in place for effective and efficient EU investments. Finally, sustainable development is a legally binding cross-cutting principle, which is mainstreamed at all stages of the implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds.


  - The EU health and food safety policy also contributes to high standards on water and sanitation in terms of preventing the spread of communicable diseases and promoting universal healthcare and reducing cross-border health risks in EU Member States and through EU sanitary and phytosanitary regulations in the field of food safety.


  - EU funding instruments such as the European Structural Investment Funds, the Programme for the Environment and Climate Action (LIFE), Horizon 2020 (including through the European Institute of Innovation & Technology EIT), the Civil Protection Instrument and the Emergency Support Instrument. |
| 7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all | The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: jobs, growth and investment; a digital single market; energy union and climate; a stronger global actor |
| | - The EU and its Member States play an important role in international energy fora, in line with the external dimension of the EU Energy Union. They have been key actors contributing to the COP 21 Paris Climate Agreement enabling the transition towards a low-carbon, climate resilient economy. The EU's external energy action is underpinned by its domestic 2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework.


  - The EU has been working towards rules-based energy governance worldwide. The EU has been building strategic alliances and intensifying dialogue and coordination with bilateral partners and international organisations, with the aim of joining forces, exploiting possible synergies and increasing complementarity and leverage. The EU furthermore continues to invest in clean energy technologies and cooperates with key partners to promote policies and programs that advance them, notably in the frame of the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM). In June 2016, the EU joined the Mission Innovation Initiative which recognises the global importance of increasing research and development investments in clean energy technologies.


  - The EU has a leading role within the Energy Community, an international organisation which aims to integrate neighbouring countries into the EU's internal energy market and thus improve cross-border energy security based on solidarity and trust.


  - The EU development cooperation policy: the Agenda for Change pays particular attention to the energy sector as a key driver of inclusive sustainable growth with the aim to improve access to affordable and sustainable energy, enhance energy efficiency and increase the use of renewable energy sources. In the framework of the global initiative Sustainable Energy for All, the EU has committed to helping developing countries provide access to sustainable energy services to 500 million people by 2030.


  - The Covenant of Mayors was a great success within the EU that inspired other regions across the globe: the Covenant of Mayors was extended towards the east with the Covenant of Mayors East programme as well as towards the southern Mediterranean countries. The 'Covenant of Mayors for Sub-Saharan Africa' for energy efficiency was also launched. The Partnership Instrument is currently extending the Covenant of Mayors to other regions, such as Asia and North and South America. The new Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, bringing together the Covenant of Mayors and the Compact of Mayors, further strengthens the international dimension of this bottom-up initiative.


  - In 2015 the EU launched the Global Climate Change Alliance Plus (GCCA+), a seven-year flagship programme to help the world’s poorest and most vulnerable places tackle climate change, including the energy dimension by providing financial, technical and policy support.


  - Also the European Neighbourhood Policy and the EU Enlargement Policy are focusing among others on access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.


  - EU funding instruments such as the European Neighbourhood Instrument, the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance, the European Development Fund, the Development Cooperation Instrument, the Partnership Instrument and the external component of Connecting Europe Facility and Horizon 2020. The EU has moreover contributed financially to the

  Global Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Fund (GEEREF)

  . | - The goal of a resilient Energy Union with an ambitious climate policy is at the core of the Commission's work to give EU consumers - households and businesses - secure, sustainable, competitive and affordable energy. The Commission's Energy Union Strategy from February 2015 sets out the way to achieve this along five interrelated dimensions: energy security, solidarity and trust; integrated European energy market; energy efficiency; decarbonising the economy; and research, innovation and competitiveness.


  - For the period up to 2020, the Energy Union is complemented by the Europe 2020 Strategy with its headline targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20%, to satisfy 20% of the EU's energy demand with renewables, and to increase energy efficiency by 20% by 2020.


  - The 2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework is a crucial part of the Energy Union by aiming for 2030 to achieve a greenhouse gas emissions reduction of 40%, a renewables' share of at least 27% in the EU's energy mix, and an increase of energy efficiency by at least 27% (with a view to 30%). With this framework, the Energy Union will also ensure in the future secure, sustainable, competitive and affordable energy. At least 20% of the EU budget will be spent on climate action by 2020.


  - Progress towards these targets is ensured and monitored through the implementation of the Energy Union and its related legislation, as well as the

  European Semester

  , the EU's yearly cycle of economic and budgetary coordination.


  - Several supporting initiatives are taken, such as the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, integrating mitigation, adaptation and access to secure, sustainable and affordable energy at local and regional level. The Integrated Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan) adopted last year, brings European countries, industrial and research stakeholders and the Commission together, to work on identifying and implementing common research and innovation objectives and actions to realise the decarbonisation of the EU energy system in the most cost-effective way.


  - The Commission is moreover working towards a concrete European pillar of social rights, which will identify a number of essential principles which will serve as a compass for upwards convergence. One of the main areas covered is access to essential services, such as energy, including electricity, gas and heating.


  - Also, the EU's digital policy aims to contribute to energy efficiency, for example through its actions on and support to smart energy grids, smart metering and smart cities.


  - Moreover, the generation of renewable ocean energy is one of the key maritime economic activities supported under the Blue Growth policy which aims at harnessing the economic potential of our seas and oceans in a sustainable manner.


  - The Commission believes that Corporate Social Responsibility is important for the sustainability, competitiveness, and innovation of EU enterprises and the EU economy and as such supports businesses to be and to become socially responsible, inter alia through the promotion of energy efficiency and renewable energy in businesses.


  - EU Cohesion Policy plays a crucial role in delivering the Energy Union. In particular, Cohesion Policy has a thematic objective dedicated to low-carbon economy, which includes measures for energy efficiency, renewable energy, research and innovation and adoption of low-carbon technologies, smart energy infrastructure and energy-efficient decarbonised transport sector. EU Cohesion Policy (2014-2020) invests EUR 29 billion in sustainable energy, including energy efficiency, renewable energy, smart energy infrastructure and low-carbon research and innovation. The access to the related European Structural and Investment Funds is conditional upon the correct implementation of relevant parts of EU energy legislation. Finally, sustainable development is a legally binding cross-cutting principle, which is mainstreamed at all stages of the implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds.


  - The Common Agricultural Policy supports, through its Rural Development Programs, investments in infrastructures for generation and distribution of renewable energy (to and from the agricultural holdings) using biomass and other renewable energy sources (solar and wind power, geothermal).


  - EU funding instruments such as the European Fund for Strategic Investments, the Connecting Europe Facility, Horizon 2020 (including through the European Institute of Innovation & Technology EIT), and the European Structural and Investment Funds. |
| 8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all | The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: jobs, growth and investment; a digital single market; energy union and climate; a deeper and fairer internal market; a deeper and fairer economic and monetary union; a balanced EU-US free trade agreement; a stronger global actor |
| | - The EU development cooperation policy: the Agenda for Change focuses on inclusive and sustainable growth for human development as one of its priorities in particular in those sectors that have stronger multiplier impact on developing countries' economies, notably sustainable agriculture and energy. EU support has been significant in supporting macroeconomic stability and growth, indirectly enabling new sustainable employment opportunities. Support to technical and vocational training as well as trade development contributed to widen employment opportunities. Employment, decent work and tackling child labour in developing countries are EU priority areas for 2014-2020 under the Global Public Good and Challenges programme. The EU promotes high standards for working conditions internationally as well as the formalisation of the informal economy. The EU supports the development of a competitive local private sector including by building local institutional and business capacity, by promoting SMEs, cooperatives, inclusive business models and social enterprises, by promoting employment for young people and women, by supporting legislative and regulatory framework reforms and their enforcement, and by facilitating access to business and financial services to foster financial inclusion, including through digital solutions. Through its budget support operations the EU promotes stability oriented macroeconomic management as a prerequisite for inclusive and sustainable economic growth and development. This includes prudent debt policies and debt management capacities, increased domestic resource mobilization, reduction of aid dependency and structural reforms to diversify partner countries' economies. The EU also supports responsible management of supply chains and responsible engagement of European companies in developing countries, including in specific sectors such as mining, logging, conflict minerals or garment.


  - Also the revised European Neighbourhood Policy proposes economic development as a priority, as a means for stabilisation of the regions concerned.


  - The EU Enlargement Policy will continue to focus efforts on sustainable economic development and competitiveness, growth and jobs.


  - The External Investment Plan aims to increase investment in Africa and the EU's neighbourhood by unlocking private resources, stepping up technical assistance and improving the investment climate in order to promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth in these partner countries. The proposed European Fund for Sustainable Development lies at the core of the External Investment Plan and is expected to trigger additional public and private investment volumes, mobilising total investments of up to EUR 44 billion based on EUR 3.35 billion contribution from the EU budget and the European Development Fund, or even EUR 88 billion if Member States and other partners match the EU contribution.


  - The EU is at the forefront of using its trade and investment policy to support inclusive growth and sustainable development in developing countries. Key instruments in this regard are the Everything But Arms initiative, the GSP+ arrangement and the inclusion of trade and sustainable development chapters in the EU new generation trade and investment agreements, to promote high levels of environmental and labour protection. The Trade for All Strategy further strengthens the link between trade and sustainable development.


  - EU humanitarian aid provides support and expertise to international organisations to help refugees' and displaced peoples' host governments to put in place legislation that gives them access to the formal labour market, decent work standards and protecting them from labour exploitation. It also focuses on child protection through linking education and protection, and strengthening crisis affected childrens' resilience through vocational training.


  - The EU has been active in the G20 with regard to strengthening the international economic policy coordination process as well as fostering full and timely implementation of the agreed G20 growth strategies.


  -The EU has been contributing to the G7 Vision Zero Fund to promote decent work and healthy workplaces in the global supply chains in developing countries, focusing mainly on the garment sector.


  - Cooperation with the International Labour Organisation with special focus on decent work and social protection.


  - EU funding instruments such as the proposed European Fund for Sustainable Development, the European Neighbourhood Instrument, the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance, the European Development Fund, the Development Cooperation Instrument, the Partnership Instrument and the Humanitarian Aid funding instrument. | - The EU ensures that EU Member States coordinate their economic, social and employment policies at EU level.


  - The European Commission has launched in 2015 an

  Investment Plan for Europe

  to unlock over EUR 315 billion of investment over three years and deliver a powerful and targeted boost to economic sectors that create jobs and raise growth. The Investment Plan for Europe has three objectives: removing obstacles to investment by deepening the single market, providing visibility and technical assistance to investment projects and making smarter use of new and existing financial resources. The EU Capital Markets Union aims to tackle investment shortages head-on by increasing and diversifying the funding sources for Europe’s businesses and long-term projects and through fostering sustainable investment.


  - The Europe 2020 Strategy and more specifically the headline targets to employ 75% of the 20-64 year-olds and to fighting poverty and social exclusion. Progress towards these Europe 2020 targets is encouraged and monitored through the

  European Semester

  , the EU's yearly cycle of economic and budgetary coordination.


  - With its circular economy package, the EU aims to address economic and environmental concerns by maximizing efficiency in the use of resources, covering the whole value chain and through innovation, thereby enabling the development of new markets and business models. As such it contributes to sustainable economic growth.


  - The Commission is committed to unleash the full potential of the Single Market through the implementation of its Single Market Strategy and make it the launchpad for Europe to thrive in the global economy.


  - In line with the principle of subsidiarity, Member States are primarily competent for the definition of their employment and social policy, while the EU supports and complement the activities of the Member States, often by agreeing on minimum standards at the EU level. The EU has put measures in place to ensure decent working conditions, going from legislation on health and safety at work, working conditions, information and consultation of workers to legislation on tackling discrimination at work.


  - The Commission is moreover working towards a concrete European pillar of social rights, which will identify a number of essential principles which will serve as a compass for upwards convergence as regards social and labour market performances, focusing on the needs and challenges in the field of employment and social policies. Main areas covered are equal opportunities and access to the labour market, fair working conditions, adequate and sustainable social protection and promoting social dialogue, with a view to establishing an adequate and reliable balance of rights and obligations between workers and employers.


  - The EU has contributed to the elaboration of the Youth Guarantee under which Member States should ensure that, within four months of leaving school or losing a job, young people under 25 can either find a good-quality job suited to their education, skills and experience; or acquire the education, skills and experience required to find a job in the future through an apprenticeship, traineeship or continued education. The EU is moreover topping-up national spending on these schemes through the European Social Fund and the Youth Employment Initiative.


  - Competitiveness is a core priority of the Energy Union. The third internal energy market package, guidelines for Trans-European energy infrastructure, the renewable and energy efficiency legislation and the new governance of the Energy Union, as well as the revision of the EU Emission Trading System (ETS) and the proposal for setting Member States' targets for the sectors outside the Emission Trading System (ETS) provide the framework for the necessary investments to materialise in the coming years.


  - The 7th Environment Action Programme sets the vision that by 2050, we live well, within the planet’s ecological limits. It confirms that our prosperity and healthy environment stem from an innovative, circular economy where nothing is wasted and where natural resources are managed sustainably, and biodiversity is protected, valued and restored in ways that enhance our society’s resilience.


  - With its digital single market strategy, the EU aims to maximise the growth potential of our European Digital Economy.


  - As the EU's first investment arm, Cohesion Policy addresses a wide range of EU economic and social objectives. EU Cohesion Policy has thematic objectives dedicated to SME support, sustainable and quality, labour mobility and vocational training and lifelong learning. EU Cohesion Policy for the 2014-2020 period is moreover targeted towards achieving smart, sustainable and inclusive growth by providing investments of about EUR 350 billion and a number of enabling conditions, such as technical assistance, capacity building, and territorial cooperation. Finally, sustainable development is a legally binding cross-cutting principle, which is mainstreamed at all stages of the implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds.


  - The EU is working to strengthen the ecosystem of social economy enterprises and actors in the EU, bringing an alternative way of doing business, for example by focusing on the social impact for the common good.


  - The Commission believes that Corporate Social Responsibility is important for the sustainability, competitiveness, and innovation of EU enterprises and the EU economy and as such supports businesses to be and to become socially responsible, for example with regard to working conditions.


  - The Common Agricultural policy supports jobs and growth in the agricultural sector and the rural economy and it fosters the economic vitality of rural areas. Specific measures are in place to assist young farmers, for example for set-up and investments and through direct payments.


  - The Common Fisheries Policy supports a fair standard of living for fishing communities, sustainable fisheries and aquaculture and a dynamic fisheries industry.


  - Blue Growth is the long term strategy to support sustainable growth in the marine and maritime sectors as a whole. Seas and oceans are drivers for the European economy and have great potential for innovation and growth. The EU singles out several particular industries for special attention: ocean energy, aquaculture, blue biotech, deep sea mining and coastal tourism.



  - The EU is contributing to promoting sustainable tourism and promotes local culture and tourism products, such as emerging, non-traditional tourism destinations (European Destinations of Excellence) or supports transnational projects on sustainable tourism products.


  - EU funding instruments such as the European Fund for Strategic Investments, the European Structural and Investment Funds, Horizon 2020, the

  Employment and Social Innovation programme

  , the Programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (COSME), the Emergency Support Instrument, the Connecting Europe Facility and the Creative Europe Programme. |
| 9. Build resilient infrastruc-ture, promote inclusive and sustainable industriali-zation and foster innovation | The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: jobs, growth and investment; a digital single market; energy union and climate; a deeper and fairer internal market; a stronger global actor |
| | - The EU development cooperation policy: the Agenda for Change and the EU policy on the role of the private sector support leveraging private sector activity and resources with a view to fostering sustainable investment, economic diversification, local value added and industrialization. This includes up-front grant funding and risk-sharing mechanisms to catalyse public-private partnerships and private investment. Blending, which combines EU grants with loans or equity from other public and private financiers, is increasingly supportive of actions on infrastructure which have a multiplier effect on sustainable development in partner countries. The EU moreover promotes industrial policies and the development of national innovation systems. On sustainable industrialisation, EU actions with partner countries are geared towards inclusive and sustainable growth and economic integration, building on partner countries' comparative advantages in the manufacturing or services sectors, including through aid for trade. The EU also promotes the development of sustainable global, regional and local value chains in developing countries. Other targets on access to financial services and technology are consistent with existing EU policy, including its involvement in initiatives such as the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion.


  -The European Neighbourhood Policy and the EU Enlargement Policy support this sustainable development goal by providing technical assistance and investments on agreed network priorities and technical assistance through blending facilities, bilateral assistance programmes and regional initiatives. For example, in the European Neighbourhood Policy the EU has contributed to the regional transport action plan for the Mediterranean region (2014-2020) and to a transport dialogue within the Eastern partnership aimed at extending the physical infrastructure of the Trans-European Transport networks and their governance. Those Trans-European Transport networks have already been extended to the Western Balkans.


  - The External Investment Plan aims to increase investment in Africa and the EU's neighbourhood by unlocking private resources, stepping up technical assistance and improving the investment climate in order to promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth in these partner countries. The proposed European Fund for Sustainable Development lies at the core of the External Investment Plan and is expected to trigger additional public and private investment volumes, mobilising total investments of up to EUR 44 billion based on EUR 3.35 billion contribution from the EU budget and the European Development Fund, or even EUR 88 billion if Member States and other partners match the EU contribution. As such it can provide an important contribution to the promotion of resilient infrastructure, inclusive and sustainable industrialization and innovation in Africa and Neighbourhood countries.


  - EU humanitarian aid places resilience as its central objective by among others supporting development of disaster and climate resilient infrastructure in different contexts around the globe (e.g. water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), Settlements and Shelter). It supports multi-stakeholder collaborations, including with the private sector and academia, to spur effective and demand-driven humanitarian innovation. These priorities are also underlined in the Action Plan on the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.



  - EU funding instruments such as the proposed European Fund for Sustainable Development, European Neighbourhood Instrument (in particular through its Neighbourhood Investment Facility), the European Development Fund, the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance, the Development Cooperation Instrument, the external dimension of the Connecting Europe Facility and Horizon 2020, the Partnership Instrument and the Humanitarian Aid funding instrument. | - The EU’s 

  Trans-European Networks

    policy links regional and national infrastructure to create coherent European infrastructure systems. This includes both interconnection and interoperability, mainly for 

  transport

   and 

  energy

  , but also Information and Communications Technology (ICT). There are guidelines in place to make sure that all supported infrastructure projects are climate and disaster resilient. Also the Energy Union contributes to the build-up of infrastructure. The Common Agricultural Policy, through its Rural Development Programs, supports the creation, improvement and expansion of broadband infrastructures and IT applications.


  - The European Programme for Critical Infrastructure Protection sets the overall framework for activities aimed at improving the protection of critical infrastructure in Europe - across all EU States and in all relevant sectors of economic activity. The programme has also synergies with actions under the Union Civil Protection Mechanism.


  - The EU is working towards a smart, innovative and clean industry of the future, supporting the modernisation of Europe’s industrial base across all industrial sectors. It does so by providing financing, including targeted financing to SMEs (for example through the Investment Plan for Europe, European Structural and Investment Funds, COSME, Horizon 2020, including the European Institute of Innovation & Technology EIT), best regulatory environment (Single Market Strategy, innovative schemes encouraging flexible and innovation friendly legislation). Also, the EU aims to reap the full benefits of the digital single market by promoting the digitisation of the European industry and through its access and connectivity policies. Also the Common Agricultural Policy supports the creation, improvement and expansion of broadband infrastructures and IT applications in rural areas.


  - The EU is promoting eco-innovation and

  sustainability

  objectives for the European economy through its circular economy package, through its 2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework which strives for a competitive low-carbon and climate-resilient economy, through its actions to stimulate the uptake of advanced (digital and key enabling) technologies and business models for a cleaner industry and through the promotion of

  corporate social responsibility

  in the EU by encouraging enterprises to adhere to international guidelines and principles. The EU also supports small cultural and creative enterprises to access financial services and integrate into value chains and markets.


  - The EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change identifies resilient infrastructure as a priority action area under the strategic objective of mainstreaming adaptation measures as a way to climate proof EU action. Guidelines for project developers on climate proof investments as well as a guide for addressing climate change adaptation in standards (with CEN-CENELEC) have been developed.


  - The Europe 2020 Strategy and more specifically the headline target to invest at least 3% of the EU's GDP in R&D. Progress towards this Europe 2020 target is encouraged and monitored through the

  European Semester

  , the EU's yearly cycle of economic and budgetary coordination. Horizon 2020 is the financial instrument implementing the

  Innovation Union

  , a

  Europe 2020

  flagship initiative aimed at securing Europe's global competitiveness. Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme ever with EUR 77 billion of funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020) – in addition to the private investment that this money will attract. For example, Horizon 2020 finances research and innovation for sustainable industrialisation through the Bio-Based Industries Joint Technology Initiative, a public-private partnership which will support biorefineries and innovative bio-processing technologies.


  - As the EU's first investment arm, EU Cohesion Policy has specific thematic objectives dedicated to research and innovation, ICT, transport infrastructure, climate resilience and risk prevention and management, and smart energy systems. EU Cohesion Policy (2014-2020) invests EUR 41 billion in innovation, EUR 33 billion for the competitiveness of SMEs and EUR 70 billion for better and more sustainable transport, including a shift towards low-carbon systems, and EUR 3 billion in smart energy grids. The funding opportunities for innovation are targeted at smart specialisation priorities, based on the local growth opportunities and needs and together with industry and researchers. In the area of transport and energy infrastructures, as a funding pre-condition, the investments are based on comprehensive plans or frameworks. Finally, sustainable development is a legally binding cross-cutting principle, which is mainstreamed at all stages of the implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds.


  - EU funding instruments such as the European Fund for Strategic Investments, the European Structural and Investment Funds, Horizon 2020 (including through the European Institute of Innovation & Technology EIT),  the Connecting Europe Facility, the Civil protection instrument, the Emergency Support Instrument and the Cultural and Creative Sector Guarantee Facility. |
| 10. Reduce inequality within and among countries | The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: jobs, growth and investment; a deeper and fairer internal market; a deeper and fairer economic and monetary union; justice and fundamental rights; migration; a stronger global actor; democratic change |
| | - The EU development cooperation policy, the European Neighbourhood Policy and the EU Enlargement Policy aim to reduce inequality within the countries concerned by promoting respectively inclusive growth for human development and economic development for stabilisation. As such it also aims to bridge the gap with other more developed countries. More specifically, development cooperation focuses on growth patterns that lead to structural transformation and that are conducive to more productive employment, higher incomes and decent work for all, which are central for addressing income inequalities. Moreover, EU action - for example through its budget support dialogue - centres on pro-poor fiscal policies, strengthened governance, fair and transparent tax systems, public sector management, domestic resource mobilisation and adequate and sustainable social protection, all of which contribute to tackling inequalities. The EU support also takes a comprehensive approach to human development which involves non-discriminatory access to resources and a rights-based approach, developing social protection and reducing inequality of opportunity, having regard to most vulnerable and disadvantaged. Financing instruments integrate the Agenda for Change commitment including continued support for social inclusion and human development through at least 20% of EU aid.


  - EU trade and investment policy aims to make trade and investment contribute to inclusive growth and sustainable development within countries, notably by maximising the potential of trade preferences, trade agreements and investment agreements for job creation, high levels of labour protection and investment generation in partner countries, notably developing ones. At the same time, the EU aims to minimise any negative impact of other trade agreements on least developed countries and other countries most in need.


  - One essential aspect of the common EU approach to migration is to build dialogue and partnerships with countries of origin and transit, based on solidarity and shared responsibility. To this end new results-oriented Partnership Frameworks with third countries will be developed where the EU and its Member States will act in a coordinated manner according to the situation and needs of each partner country, depending on whether they are a country of origin, country of transit or a country hosting many migrants. At the same time, the global Approach to migration and mobility provides the overarching framework for the EU external migration policy. Focused and continued attention will be needed to support partner countries to maximise the contribution of well managed migration to development including through the reduction of remittance transfer costs from the EU.


  - The EU provides needs-based humanitarian assistance to the people hit by man-made and natural disasters with particular attention to the most vulnerable, which often include persons with disabilities, women, children and elderly. As such it contributes to reduce inequalities within and among countries. The Action Plan for Resilience in Crisis Prone Countries 2013-2020 calls for "Equity - a people-centred approach", to bring sustainable benefits to the most vulnerable populations and households, taking into account the diversity of needs of women, children, men and the elderly. The Action Plan for the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015 - 2030 implementation advocates for inclusivity and gives a special focus on vulnerable groups.


  - In its international relations the EU is also committed to reducing inequalities. It is for example committed to improve regulation and monitoring on global financial markets and institutions. Also, in order to reduce inequalities among countries, including those related to representation and migration, the EU is committed to enhancing voice and representation of developing countries in International Financial Institutions and reducing remittance costs, in the G20 and other international fora.


  - Cooperation with OECD as regards income inequalities (the OECD's flagship report on income inequalities launched jointly with the European Commission in May 2015).


  - When it comes to leaving no one behind, the EU encourages financial flows, including foreign direct investment, to states where the need is greatest, and has made a collective commitment to allocate 0.20% of Gross National Income (GNI) as Official Development Assistance (ODA) to the least developed countries by 2030.


  - EU funding instruments such as the European Neighbourhood Instrument, European Development Fund, the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance, the Development Cooperation Instrument, the Civil Protection Mechanism, the Partnership Instrument and the Humanitarian Aid funding instrument. | - The EU supports and complements the Member States' policies in the fields of social inclusion and social protection.


  - In the framework of the European Semester the Commission provides detailed annual analyses of EU Member States budgetary and economic reform plans and provides Member States with country-specific recommendations for the next 12-18 months. The European Semester recommendations aim at structural reforms that can enhance growth, jobs and investment, and thereby also social inclusiveness. This covers e.g. fiscal and structural reform (including social policies), which both can contribute to reducing inequality. These recommendations also contribute to the objectives of the EU's long-term strategy for jobs and growth, the Europe 2020 Strategy, which is implemented and monitored in the context of the European Semester. Many decisions however remain a prerogative of the Member States, for example regarding the progressivity of tax systems and the design of the welfare systems.


  - The EU is working on the implementation of a new agenda for migration, as the EU’s external borders have increasingly been the scene of human tragedies to which the EU, together with its Member States, must take action. The EU aims at taking immediate action to prevent further losses of migrants’ lives. In the medium to longer term the EU is focusing on reducing the incentives for irregular migration, saving lives and securing the external borders, strengthening the common asylum policy and developing a new policy on legal migration. The European Commission’s Knowledge Centre for Migration and Demography shall underpin these policy developments and decisions with relevant knowledge and evidence-based analysis.


  - The proposed European Solidarity Corps will enable young people across the EU to volunteer their help where it is needed most, for example related to the reception and integration of refugees. 


  - The EU has put in place a framework to ensure equal opportunities and to tackle discrimination based on grounds of racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or

  sexual orientation

  and

  sex

  . Examples are the EU laws on racial Equality (implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin in many areas of social life) and on Employment Equality (establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation). The EU for example also has a strategy in place to reduce health inequalities in the EU and promote solidarity in health, and has rules in place on the fight against racism and xenophobia.


  - The Commission is moreover working towards a concrete European pillar of social rights, which will identify a number of essential principles which will serve as a compass for upwards convergence as regards social and labour market performances, thereby contributing to reducing inequalities.


  - Also the New Skills Agenda will contribute to reducing inequalities as it aims at ensuring that people in Europe have the skills they need to participate in society and be active in the labour market.



  - The EU has taken a number of initiatives to create a safer and sounder financial sector through its banking union, such as stronger prudential requirements for banks, improved depositor protection and rules for managing failing banks. Moreover a Single Supervisory Mechanism and a Single Resolution Mechanism for banks was established.


  - EU cohesion policy is about reducing disparities between the various regions and the catching-up of the least-favoured regions and about promoting economic, social and territorial cohesion. It does so by investing in smart, sustainable and inclusive growth in all EU regions. Cohesion policy has a thematic objective especially dedicated to promoting social inclusion, combatting poverty and any discrimination to which it contributes in particular by building non-segregated facilities and encouraging community-based services. Finally, sustainable development is a legally binding cross-cutting principle, which is mainstreamed at all stages of the implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds.


  - The EU civil protection policy considers the needs of people with disabilities among the priorities of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism activities (e.g. civil protection exercises and preparedness projects), thereby fostering disability-inclusive disaster management.


  - EU funding instruments such as the European Structural and Investment Funds, the Employment and Social Innovation programme, the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, the Civil Protection Mechanism, the Emergency Support Instrument and the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme. |
| 11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable | The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: jobs, growth and investment; a digital single market; energy and climate; a stronger global actor |
| | - The EU development cooperation policy, the EU neighborhood policy and the EU Enlargement Policy aim to directly or indirectly improve living conditions in cities. For example EU development cooperation policy aid to urban and peri-urban areas focuses in particular on support to slum upgrading, access to water and sanitation, urban mobility, energy and affordable housing, land access, the essential role of culture and cultural heritage and availability of public space for all, as well as energy efficiency and disaster prevention and preparedness. The EU promotes sustainable and climate resilient urbanisation as a basic tool to enhance more effective development at local level and is committed to work on social inclusion and gender issues in informal settlements.


  - The EU is also actively participating in international fora, for example in "Habitat III”, a major global summit, formally known as the

  United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development

  . It has helped developing the Mediterranean and Eastern components of the Covenant of Mayors (see the text linked to sustainable development goal n°7), and has contributed to the Union for the Mediterranean Ministerial on Sustainable Urban Development (2011).


  - In June 2016, the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy and the Compact of Mayors joined efforts to create a new single global initiative, the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, resulting in the largest global coalition of cities committed to climate leadership. Built upon a unique multi-level governance model, it brings together more than 7,100 cities from 119 countries and six continents, representing more than 600 million inhabitants, over 8% of the world’s population.


  - The urban crises are one of the EU humanitarian assistance programmes' priorities. EU humanitarian aid supports methodologies for urban approaches to humanitarian response as well as different initiatives working on urban humanitarian crises. The Action Plan for the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015 - 2030 implementation includes a strong focus on building the urban resilience to disasters.


  - Reinforcing cooperation on cultural heritage is one of the three main objectives of the EU strategic approach to international cultural relations. Actions in this field include research on cultural heritage, initiatives and projects aimed at combating illicit trafficking of cultural goods and protection of cultural heritage internationally in cooperation with UNESCO.


  - EU funding instruments such as the European Development Fund, the European Neighbourhood Instrument, the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, the Development Cooperation Instrument, the Partnership Instrument, the Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace, the Humanitarian Aid funding instrument and the external component of Horizon 2020. | - Cities are key actors for the sustainable development of the European Union. In the period up to 2020 the urban dimension is put at the very heart of EU Cohesion Policy. An amount of funds is earmarked for integrated projects in cities. Linked to this the Urban Agenda for the EU was adopted in 2016 so that urban areas will benefit from an innovative collaborative approach to developing and implementing policies with a local focus but a significant European dimension. In the funding period 2014 – 2020 for example, more than EUR 100 billion from the European Regional Development Fund will be invested in cities to create better opportunities for sustainable urban mobility, energy efficiency, urban renewal, research and innovation capacity and economic and social regeneration of deprived communities. Finally, sustainable development is a legally binding cross-cutting principle, which is mainstreamed at all stages of the implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds.


  - The 7th Environment Action Programme, the agreed framework for EU environment policy until 2020, has as a horizontal priority objective to make the Union's cities more sustainable. Many of the EU's policies and legislation are vital for sustainable urban development such as the Clean Air Package, Air Quality and Noise Legislation, the Circular Economy Package, legislation on the environmental assessment of projects and plans, the EU's Biodiversity and Green Infrastructure Strategies, Drinking Water and Urban Wastewater Treatment legislation and the framework on energy performance of building.




  - Urban areas concentrate most of the environmental challenges facing our society but also bring together commitment and innovation to resolve them. The European Green Capital Award and the Green Leaf Award are EU initiatives to bring such commitment into the centre stage. Also, the efforts of cities to improve the accessibility for persons with disabilities and older people are being recognized through the annual Access City Award.


  - Innovation in urban areas is fostered through EU research and innovation actions, for instance Horizon 2020 support to the transition to sustainable cities through nature-based solutions and cultural heritage-led regeneration.


  - The EU policy on smart cities and more specifically the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities brings together cities, industry and citizens to improve urban life through more sustainable integrated solutions.


  - The Energy Union aims to provide the necessary sustainable, save and resilient energy for our cities. The Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy supports cities in addressing climate resilience, together with taking ambitious action on climate change mitigation and access to safe, clean and affordable energy. New signatories of the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with the EU's targets for 2030 and to adopt an integrated approach to tackling mitigation and adaptation to climate change.


  - The EU promotes sustainable urban mobility planning in cities in various ways; it has for example established guidelines and provides funding for related projects.


  - European cultural heritage benefits from a range of EU policies, programmes and funding. The recently agreed designation of 2018 as European Year for Cultural Heritage will help the EU and its Member States strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard cultural heritage. The protection of cultural heritage against all kinds of natural and man-made disasters occurring inside or outside the Union is also covered by the Union Civil Protection Mechanism. This is further underlined in the Action Plan for the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction implementation 2015 – 2030 that advocates for strengthened urban resilience to disasters.


  - The EU is working to strengthen the ecosystem of social economy enterprises and actors in the EU, most of them bringing social values in the local communities, thereby contributing to resilience and more sustainability in the medium and long run.


  - EU funding instruments such as the European Fund for Strategic Investments, the European Structural and Investment Funds, Horizon 2020, the Programme for the Environment and Climate Action (LIFE), the Connecting Europe Facility and the Civil Protection Mechanism. |
| 12. Ensure sustainable consump-tion and production patterns | The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: jobs, growth and investment; a digital single market; energy union and climate; a stronger global actor |
| | - The EU development cooperation policy and the European Neighbourhood Policy are investing in projects which contribute to sustainable consumption and production patterns in third countries. The EU for example promotes responsible supply chains and responsible business practices of European companies in developing countries. The EU also promotes the transition to an inclusive green economy that generates growth and creates decent jobs in partner countries, notably through the Switch to Green initiative that supports the adoption of sustainable consumption and production practices by the private sector and the development of enabling policy frameworks. It builds on the SWITCH regional programmes in Asia, the Mediterranean and Africa which help interested consumers, businesses and supporting associations switch to a more sustainable paradigm. Concrete initiatives also include the Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE) and the Green Economy Coalition, funded by the EU through the Global Public Goods and Challenges Programme. Moreover, the EU supports through a range of activities the UN 10-Year Framework of Programmes (10YFP) on sustainable consumption and production patterns, which provides a global framework of action to enhance international cooperation to accelerate the shift towards sustainable consumption and production in both developed and developing countries. The EU also supports the sound management of waste and chemicals and the implementation of the related Multilateral Environmental Agreements by developing countries.


  - As part of its trade policy, including through free trade agreements and preferential trade schemes, the EU pursues sustainable development, promoting inclusive growth, responsible management of supply chains, fair and ethical trade schemes, human rights and good governance. This dimension has been further strengthened by the Trade for All Strategy. Voluntary Partnership Agreements on tropical timber with major producer countries are a concrete example of ensuring the sustainability of supply chains.


  - The EU rules to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing ensure that only marine fisheries products validated as legal by the competent flag state or exporting state can be imported to or exported from the EU.


  - The EU furthermore is Party to a range of international agreements that are vital for achieving this sustainable development goal, including the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions and engages in the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM).


  - EU funding instruments such as the European Neighbourhood Instrument, European Development Fund, the Development Cooperation Instrument, the Partnership Instrument and the external component of Horizon 2020. | - The Energy Union contributes to the sustainable use of our natural resources and the protection of our environment through a manifold of initiatives and legal acts (see above under sustainable development goal n°7). For example, the Ecodesign legislation is a tool to not only save energy but also shape the durability, reparability, resource efficiency, reusability and recyclability of products. The Energy Label guides consumers towards the most efficient and sustainable products.


  - The 7th Environment Action programme, the agreed framework for EU environment policy until 2020, has as a key objective to turn the Union into a resource-efficient, green, and competitive low-carbon economy. Another key objective is to safeguard EU citizens from environment-related pressures and risks to health and wellbeing. For example, the EU Forest Strategy has as one of its key principles global forest responsibility, promoting sustainable production and consumption of forest products.


  - Building on existing EU policies and legislation, the Circular Economy Package establishes a programme of action with measures covering the whole cycle from production and consumption to waste management. The Package includes commitments on ecodesign, waste prevention and reuse, ambitious quantitative targets on increasing recycling and reducing landfilling, obligations to improve the separate collection of waste, as well as the promotion of efficient use of bio-based resources. It also fosters methodological developments for monitoring food waste volumes and improvements in food products date marking in order to minimise food waste all along the value chain, from production to distribution, storage and consumption. In order to fight food losses and food waste and maximise the contribution of all actors, the Commission has set up the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste.


  - The EU public procurement framework promotes social inclusion and ensures the compliance of tender awards with social and labour legislation and also promotes public sector entities to purchase goods and services that have a lower impact on the environment, in particular through Green Public Procurement.


  - The EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) is a premium management instrument developed by the European Commission for companies and other organisations to evaluate, report, and improve their environmental performance. EMAS is open to every type of organisation eager to improve its environmental performance. It spans all economic and service sectors and is applicable worldwide.


  - The EU Ecolabel helps consumers to identify products and services that have a reduced environmental impact throughout their life cycle, from the extraction of raw material through to production, use and disposal. Recognised throughout Europe, EU Ecolabel is a voluntary label promoting environmental excellence.


  - The EU Chemicals Policy covers regulation on persistent organic pollutants; trade in hazardous chemicals; fluorinated gases; and hazardous waste. The "REACH" framework aims to improve the protection of human health and the environment from the risks that can be posed by chemicals, while enhancing the competitiveness of the EU chemicals industry.


  - Through its policy on digitizing the European industry the EU also promotes the development of sustainable consumption and production patterns, for example through large scale pilots on the Internet of Things.


  - The EU promotes corporate social responsibility in the EU and encourages enterprises to adhere to international guidelines and principles. Corporate Social Responsibility should be company led, and public authorities can play a supporting role through a smart mix of voluntary policy measures and, where necessary, complementary regulation. For example, large companies and groups are now obliged to disclose information on policies, risks and results as regards environmental matters, social and employee-related aspects.


  - One of the common agricultural policy's main objectives is to provide a stable, sustainably produced supply of safe food at affordable prices for consumers. This includes for examples an EU framework on organic farming, and the integration of environmental concerns, such as biodiversity, water management and use and climate change, into the Common Agricultural Policy. The agricultural policy is committed to sustainable use of natural resources and the environmentally-sound management of waste, also for food losses.


  - Similarly, the Common Fisheries Policy aims to ensure that fishing and aquaculture are environmentally, economically and socially sustainable and that they provide a source of healthy food for EU citizens. It aims at eliminating discards which is a considerable contribution towards the reduction of food waste. A central element of the Common Fisheries Policy is that it aims to guarantee that only legal fishery products enter the European market through the EU's policy against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and the use of catch documentation scheme.


  - EU Cohesion Policy invests in the protection of the environment and resource efficiency, research and innovation, the competitiveness of SMEs and the low-carbon economy, totalling more than EUR 150 billion for 2014-2020. These investments can be used to promote sustainable consumption and production, including by supporting energy and resource efficiency in SMEs and innovation in these areas. For example, cohesion policy has a specific investment priority on waste management, where it supports Member States and regions and so boosts progress on the circular economy. There is also a funding pre-condition (i.e. ex-ante conditionality) related to the correct implementation of EU waste legislation, which ensures that the necessary conditions are in place for effective and efficient EU investments. Finally, sustainable development is a legally binding cross-cutting principle, which is mainstreamed at all stages of the implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds.


  - EU funding instruments such as the European Structural and Investment Funds, Horizon 2020 (including through the European Institute of Innovation & Technology EIT) and the Programme for the Environment and Climate Action (LIFE). |
| 13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts | The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: energy union and climate; a stronger global actor |
| | - The EU has been at the forefront of international efforts towards the Paris global climate agreement and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. It will implement the Paris agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and is committed to implement the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015 - 2030.


  - The EU is stepping up its international climate diplomacy to maintain the political momentum and support other countries in the implementation of the Paris Agreement and their climate plans. In this respect, the EU remains committed to scaling up the mobilisation of international climate finance. The EU will contribute globally to reaching the headline targets agreed in Paris. The EU has contributed to reach a successful agreement in the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) on a global market-based measure for international aviation emissions. It has also focused its diplomatic outreach and attention to negotiations in the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) where an agreement to include hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) within its ambit was achieved on 15 October 2016.


  - The EU is with its trade policy playing a key role in taking forward negotiations for an environmental goods agreement with 16 other major WTO members. The aim is to facilitate trade in vital green technologies like renewable energy generation, waste management and air pollution control and contribute to combatting climate change and protecting the environment. The EU is also including the fight against climate change in the trade and sustainable development chapters it includes in its trade and investment agreements and their implementation.


  - In 2015 the EU launched the Global Climate Change Alliance Plus (GCCA+), a seven-year thematic flagship programme to help the world’s poorest and most vulnerable places to facilitate the transition to a climate resilient low-carbon future.


  - The EU places disaster and climate resilience as a central objective in its humanitarian assistance. The EU Resilience Marker is used in all humanitarian projects to define ways to reduce disaster risks and to strengthen people's coping capacities to disasters and crises. The Action Plan for Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015 – 2030 includes a strong focus on climate change adaptation, linking it to disaster risk reduction strategies and their coherent implementation in EU partner countries.


  - The energy sector has a direct link to the climate change challenge. Based on its 2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework, the EU works with international partners to implement efficient sustainable energy policies that meet the greenhouse gas emission reduction objectives by increasing energy production from low carbon energy resources, in particular renewables while improving energy efficiency, managing energy demand, increasing the stability and transparency of energy markets, developing and transferring clean energy technologies and intelligent solutions. Furthermore, the EU cooperates with developing countries in leapfrogging towards sustainable and modern energy services for all or decarbonising their energy mix to decouple economic growth from an increase in harmful emissions.


  - Combatting climate change and poverty eradication are recognised as inherently linked, and supporting the poorest and the most vulnerable countries is a priority. The EU’s development cooperation policy as well as other policies and financial instruments supporting the European Union external actions will contribute to achieving the 20% overall commitment to climate relevant actions for the EU spending in the 2014-2020 period. A number of new facilities and innovative mechanisms have been designed to leverage more investments. 


  - EU funding instruments such as the European Neighbourhood Instrument, the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, the European Development Fund, the Development Cooperation Instrument, the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance, the Partnership Instrument, the Humanitarian Aid funding instrument and the external component of Horizon 2020. | - The Energy Union supports the shift towards a resource-efficient, low-carbon economy to achieve sustainable growth through their legal frameworks and related initiatives (see above under sustainable development goal n°7). A legislative framework is put into place to support these policies. Most importantly, within its Energy Union Europe has set up a 2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework which sets three key targets for the year 2030: At least 40% cuts in greenhouse gas emissions (from 1990 levels), at least 27% share for renewable energy and at least 27% improvement in energy efficiency.


  - The fight against climate change and climate change adaptation is mainstreamed into many policy areas.


  - The Europe 2020 Strategy and more specifically the headline targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions 20% compared to 1990 (or even 30% if the conditions are right), to ensure 20% energy from renewables and to ensure a 20% increase in energy efficiency. Progress towards these Europe 2020 targets is encouraged and monitored through the

  European Semester

  , the EU's yearly cycle of economic and budgetary coordination.


  - There is an

  EU Emissions Trading System

  (ETS) which is the EU's key tool for cutting greenhouse gas emissions from large-scale facilities in the power and industry sectors, as well as the aviation sector. The Commission has already made a proposal for a revision of the Emissions Trading System for the period after 2020 to ensure the EU meets the 2030 greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. National emission reduction targets cover the sectors not in the emission trading system (such as building, agriculture, waste, transport, excluding aviation). They exist up to 2020 and the Commission recently adopted a proposal for targets up to 2030, including how to integrate the land use sector into the EU 2030 Climate and Energy Framework. These proposals will ensure the EU is on track to reduce greenhouse gas emissions domestically by at least 40% by 2030.


  - Other examples are the binding energy efficiency and renewable energy measures in place supported by numerous sectoral policies that reduce emissions. These include regulations improving the efficiency of appliances and other tools, standards improving CO2 efficiency of cars, and policies improving the energy performance of buildings.


  - The Circular Economy Package's full implementation will direct resources and efforts in the direction of technologies and business models that will be more resource and energy efficient thus providing an important contribution to mitigation of GHG emissions.


  - The Transport White Paper sets out the general objective for the EU of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector by 60% by 2050. An example of action towards this objective is a target on the reduction of the greenhouse gas intensity of fuels.


  - The EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change provides a framework and mechanisms to improve the preparedness of the EU for current and future impacts of climate change, thus contributing to a more climate-resilient. It is structured around three strategic objectives: promoting action by Member States; better informed decision making; and "climate-proofing" EU action by mainstreaming adaptation measures into EU policies and programmes and promoting adaptation in key vulnerable sectors.


  - In addition, promoting integrating Green Infrastructure into related plans and programmes can help restore ecological connectivity, enhance ecosystem resilience and thereby ensure the continued provision of ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration, and climate adaptation.


  - The EU Floods legislation establishes a framework for the assessment and management of flood risks. Climate change should be considered by EU Member States when undertaking preliminary flood risk assessments and when establishing flood risk management plans.


  - The EU commits to implement the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015 - 2030. The EU Action Plan for Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction implementation includes a strong focus on climate change adaptation, linking it to disaster risk reduction, and fostering a strengthened coherence between climate change adaptation strategies and risk management plans at national level in EU.


  -The EU Civil Protection Mechanism includes a general policy framework for Union actions on disaster risk prevention, aimed at achieving a higher level of protection and resilience against disasters by preventing or reducing their effects and by fostering a culture of prevention, including due consideration of the likely impacts of climate change and the need for appropriate adaptation action.


  - The Commission believes that Corporate Social Responsibility is important for the sustainability, competitiveness, and innovation of EU enterprises and the EU economy and as such supports businesses to be and to become socially responsible, for example with regard to climate action in businesses.


  - Other examples include for example a green direct payment to farmers- granted for implementing crop diversification, ecological focus areas and permanent grassland, practices whose environmental benefits is proven. Also, the Bioeconomy Strategy considers how our economy can move away from using fossil carbon, fostering instead a sustainable use of biomass to diminish our CO2 footprint.


  - To respond to challenges and investment needs related to climate change, the EU aims to spend at least 20% of EU spending in the period 2014-2020 on climate change-related actions.  To achieve this increase, climate actions have been integrated into all major EU spending programmes, in particular cohesion policy, energy, transport, research and innovation and the Common Agricultural Policy. Relevant EU funding instruments include inter alia the European Fund for Strategic Investments, the European Structural and Investment Funds, Horizon 2020, and the Programme for the Environment and Climate Action (LIFE), the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund, and the Civil Protection Mechanism. It is for example estimated that for the European Structural and Investment Funds the allocation to climate-related actions will be about EUR 115 billion or 25% of the Funds for the 2014-2020 period. For Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation climate-related expenditure is expected to exceed 35% of the overall budget for 2014-2020 period. The EU budget annual allocation to climate action has exceeded the 20% target in 2016 and will remain close to it over 2017-2020. The EU budget is set to deliver slightly above EUR 200 billion as a total climate related spending in the 2014-2020 period. |
| 14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development | The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: jobs, growth and investment; a stronger global actor |
| | - The EU is party to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which sets out the legal framework within which all activities in the oceans and seas must be carried out. It is also party to the relevant regional and international conventions on marine pollution prevention and on the conservation and sustainable management of marine resources such as the UN Fish Stocks Agreement, the UN Food and Agriculture organisation's Code of Conduct and Port State Measures Agreement, Regional Fisheries Management Organisations and Arrangements, Regional Seas Conventions, the Convention on Biological Diversity and its Nagoya Protocol, The London Convention and its Protocol and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).


  - The recently set out EU policy on International Ocean Governance sets out a list of actions that focuses on securing safe, secure, and sustainable development of our oceans at the global level through better and more effective rules as well as more effective knowledge and research.


   


  - Bilateral Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements under the Common Fisheries Policy allow EU vessels to fish only surplus resources in waters of third countries and support partner countries' capacity for sustainable fisheries management.


  - EU rules on illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing ensure that all Member States implement their international obligations to manage their fisheries resources and fishing fleets sustainably. They also ensure that only legally caught fish enters the European market, so that the EU is not supporting illegal fishing activities by other States that export marine fisheries products to the EU.


  - The EU actively supports the development of a legally binding instrument on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.


  - Through its development policy the EU supports the protection of the marine environment and sustainable fisheries management in developing countries.


  - In its trade and investment policy, the EU has increased the priority given to the sustainable management and conservation of natural resources, such as biodiversity and fisheries, notably by the inclusion of dedicated provisions in the trade and development chapters of its trade and investment agreements, in addition to commitments to core multilateral environmental agreements.


  - The EU research and innovation policy is providing further support, for example through the "Galway Statement" of 2013 on the launch of a European Union, Canada and United States of America and Canada Research Alliance on Atlantic Ocean research cooperation. The Commission also supports the G7 Future of the Oceans Initiative agreed on by the Science and Technology Ministers in 2016.


  - EU funding instruments include the external component of Horizon 2020, the European Neighbourhood Instrument, the European Development Fund, the Partnership Instrument and the Development Cooperation Instrument as well as the European Development Fund. | - The Common Fisheries Policy main objectives are to achieve environmentally, economically and socially sustainable fisheries and to contribute to the availability of food supplies. It applies the precautionary approach to fisheries management and implements the ecosystem-based approach to it in order to ensure that negative impacts of fishing activities on the marine ecosystem are minimised, and that aquaculture and fisheries activities prevent the degradation of the marine environment. Under the Common Fisheries Policy the EU is committed to take decisions based on best available science and to restore and maintain populations of living marine biological resources above biomass levels which can produce maximum sustainable yield. Other key elements are to increasingly move towards the long-term management of stocks and the introduction of landing obligation. EU rules moreover ensure that only legally caught fish enters the European market, so that the EU is not supporting illegal fishing activities by other States that export marine fisheries products to the EU.


  -The 7th Environment Action Programme, the agreed framework for EU environment policy until 2020, commits the EU to protect the Union's natural capital to (inter alia) reduce the impact of pressures on marine waters, in order to achieve or maintain good environmental status.


  - The

  Marine Strategy Framework 

  offers a comprehensive and integrated approach to the protection of the marine environment and natural resources and creating a framework for the sustainable use of our marine waters, including through ecosystem-based management. The marine strategy involves many implementation challenges, which are addressed through a Common Implementation Strategy between the Commission and the Member States and a regional approach to the implementation of its objectives. The Birds and Habitats legislation complement the Marine Strategy Framework by protecting 5% of the EU sea area through a network of Marine Protected Areas part of 'Natura 2000'.


  - To tackle marine litter and pollution, the EU uses a wide set of instruments, including regulation on waste management and prevention, port reception facilities for ship generated waste and cargo residues. While there is no internal quantitative target for the coverage of marine protected areas in relation to overall marine and coastal surface area, the EU is bound by its commitments as a Party to the Convention on Biological Diversity.


  - There is a framework in place for eco-system-based maritime spatial planning in Europe. While each EU country will be free to plan its own maritime activities, local, regional and national planning in shared seas will be made more compatible through a set of minimum common requirements.


  - There are also EU recommendations on Integrated Coastal Zone Management which define the principles of sound coastal planning and management.


  - The Civil protection Mechanism covers actions in the field of prevention of, preparedness for and response to marine pollution.


  - The EU research and innovation policy is providing further support. The EU Joint Programming Initiative on Healthy and Productive Oceans serves as a coordinating and integrating strategic platform, open to all EU Member States and countries associated to Horizon 2020 investing in marine and maritime research. Another example is the EU support to related research and innovation activities through the BLUEMED initiative together with EU Member States bordering the Mediterranean Sea.


  - Other examples of EU strategies and legislation linked to the protection of the marine environment are the EU Biodiversity Strategy; the Water Framework, Habitats and Birds, and Wildlife legislation; the circular economy package; the EU framework on drinking water, urban waste water treatment and nitrates pollution prevention; and the EU strategy for the Baltic Region. EU air pollution policy reduces deposition of pollutants leading to eutrophication and acidification. Also REACH, the EU framework to improve the protection of human health and the environment from the risks that can be posed by chemicals deals for example with contaminants in seafood and marine litter.


  - EU funding instruments such as Horizon 2020, the Programme for the Environment and Climate Action (LIFE), the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and the Civil Protection Mechanism. |
| 15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss | The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: jobs, growth and investment; a stronger global actor |
| | - The EU is a Party to all leading international conventions and protocols relevant to this goal, including the Convention on Biological Diversity and related conventions, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, the International Tropical Timber Agreement and others. The EU provides financial and technical assistance to developing countries to implement these conventions. The EU is contributing to the objective under the Convention on Biological Diversity to double total biodiversity-related funding to developing countries from all sources and to achieve a land-degradation neutral world. The EU is also engaged in the UN Forum on Forests, the UN's voluntary Global Soil Partnership and is Party to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.


  - The EU promotes sustainable forest management, the fight against deforestation, forest degradation and illegal logging. The EU's Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Action Plan (FLEGT) involves a set of demand and supply side measure to help developing countries improve forest governance and ensure the legality of the timber they export, and promotes sustainable forest management. The EU also supports REDD+, an initiative at international level to combat deforestation and forest degradation in the tropics.


  - The EU supports the fight against wildlife crime, as an external dimension of the EU Action Plan against Wildlife Trafficking.


  - The EU actively supports the development at the UN of a legally binding instrument on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.


  - In its trade and investment policy the EU has increased the priority given to the sustainable management and conservation of natural resources (biodiversity, forests and timber and wildlife), notably by the inclusion of dedicated provisions in the trade and development chapters of its trade and investment agreements, in addition to commitments to core multilateral environmental agreements.


  - The Action Plan for the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015 – 2030 implementation includes a strong focus on linking EU internal and external disaster risk reduction priorities with the biodiversity strategies and eco-system-based approaches.


  - The EU actively mainstreams environmental objectives in its cooperation with partner countries, for example with developing countries and the enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy third countries. The EU also contributes to specific programmes on conservation, restoration and sustainable management of terrestrial and marine ecosystems, in particular combatting desertification and deforestation, promoting sustainable land, soil and forest management, wildlife conservation, and resilience building.  It is also supporting a range of countries to value ecosystem services and develop natural capital accounts.


  - The EU supports the development of an international instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction.


  - EU funding instruments such as the European Development Fund, the Development Cooperation Instrument, the Partnership Instrument, the external component of Horizon 2020, the European Neighbourhood Instrument and the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance | - The 7th Environment Action programme, the agreed framework for EU environment policy until 2020, sets as one of its three main priority objectives to protect, conserve and enhance the Union’s natural capital. In this framework several EU policies have been put in place.


  - The EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 - which reflects the commitments by the EU towards the Convention on Biological Diversity' Strategic Plan for Biodiversity - sets out targets and actions needed to reverse negative trends, to halt the loss of biodiversity and the degradation of ecosystem services by 2020 and restore them as far as feasible.


  - The EU Habitats and Birds legislation is the cornerstone of nature protection in the EU. It provides comprehensive protection to all wild bird species naturally occurring in the Union and to over 1000 most valuable animals and plant species and 200 types of habitat through the EU-wide Natura 2000 network of protected areas, covering 18% of EU land area and 5% of EU sea area.


  - The EU has legislation in place to ensure environmental assessments are carried out so that the environmental implications of decisions are taken into account before these decisions are made. This applies both for individual projects, such as a dam, motorway, airport or factory (Environmental Impact Assessments), and for public plans or programmes (Strategic Environmental Assessments).


  - Environmental policies for biodiversity also include regulation on invasive alien species and on access and benefit-sharing of genetic resources. EU air pollution policy reduces deposition of pollutants leading to eutrophication and acidification.


  - Sustainable forest management, ensuring the protection of forests, is a key pillar of rural development is and is at the heart of the EU Forest Strategy. The Strategy highlights that forests are not only important for rural development, but also for the environment and biodiversity, for forest-based industries, bioenergy, and in the fight against climate change.


  - Adopted as part of the EU's Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Action Plan (FLEGT) Action Plan, the EU Timber legislation prohibits the placing on the EU market of illegally logged timber and requires market operators in the EU to exercise due diligence on the legality of their supply chain.


  - EU Water Policy also contributes substantially to maintain and improve biodiversity, by setting ecological objectives for all water bodies, including those nurturing wetlands and water-dependent terrestrial ecosystems.


  - One of the three objectives of rural development policy under the Common Agricultural Policy is ensuring the sustainable management of natural resources. It provides opportunities to support the restoration and maintenance of habitats in agricultural and forest areas through agri-environment-climate payments and specific support to compensate for disadvantages resulting from the implementation of the Natura 2000 legislation. The Common Agricultural Policy also helps the maintenance of agriculture in remote areas – such as mountain areas – where land abandonment would have adverse effects on ecosystems. Other measures under the rural development policy can also have a positive impact such as the support to organic farming, to afforestation and creation of woodland, establishment of agroforestry systems and prevention and restoration of damages to forests from forest fires and natural disasters and catastrophic events through rural development measures. The Common Agricultural Policy also provides opportunities to support the promotion of sustainable forest management and foresees combatting of desertification and restoration of degraded soil and the prevention of biodiversity loss.


  - The EU promotes sustainable use of pesticides as part of its policy by reducing the risks and impacts of pesticide use on human health and the environment and by promoting the use of Integrated Pest Management and of alternative approaches or techniques such as non-chemical alternatives to pesticides.


  - The EU Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection aims at promoting a sustainable use of soil, preventing further soil degradation and preserving its functions. The proposal to integrate the land use sector into the 2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework will incentivise climate-friendly land use and forestry.


  - The EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change promotes the use of ecosystem-based adaptation, including sustainable forest management, which not only enhances resilience to the impacts of climate change, but also achieves co-benefits in terms of ecosystems and biodiversity protection, as well as improved well-being and health.


  - The EU has an action plan against wildlife trafficking which sets out a comprehensive blueprint for joined-up efforts to fight wildlife crime inside the EU, and for strengthening the EU's role in the global fight against these illegal activities. The plan has three main strands – greater enforcement, better cooperation, and more effective prevention.


  - The Action Plan for the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015 - 2030 implementation includes a strong focus on linking EU internal and external disaster risk reduction priorities with the biodiversity strategies and eco-system-based approaches.


  - As the EU's first investment arm, EU Cohesion Policy also addresses a wide range of EU environmental objectives, becoming the catalyst of the EU transition towards a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. In particular, Cohesion Policy has a thematic objective dedicated to preserving and protecting the environment and promoting resource efficiency, in particular by investing to meet the requirements of the Union's environmental laws and to address needs identified by the Member States. During the period 2014-2020 EUR 35 billion will be invested in the protection of the environment, including for protecting and restoring biodiversity and soil and promoting ecosystem services and green infrastructure. Finally, sustainable development is a legally binding cross-cutting principle, which is mainstreamed at all stages of the implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds.


  - EU research and innovation policy sets out nature-based solutions to harvest the benefits of nature for societal challenges, such as land and ecosystem management and restoration.


  - EU funding instruments such as the European Structural and Investment Funds, Horizon 2020 and the Programme for the Environment and Climate Action (LIFE). |
| 16. Achieve peaceful and inclusive societies, rule of law, effective and capable institutions | The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: a digital single market; justice and fundamental rights; a stronger global actor; democratic change |
| | - EU action in these areas spans a wide range of policies, instruments and interventions such as development cooperation, humanitarian aid, human rights and democracy support, migration policy, diplomacy, specific conflict prevention and peacebuilding interventions, policies countering violent extremism and tackling organised crime, etc. Relevant measures contributing to this sustainable development goal are also included in association and stabilisation agreements, visa dialogues, other High level dialogues and accession negotiations. Culture and intercultural dialogue for peaceful inter-community relations are promoted.


  - The EU Global Strategy on Foreign and Security Policy sets out the strategic direction for the full range of external action and integrates the need for the EU to implement the 2030 Agenda, including addressing the security-development nexus. It calls for promoting integrated solutions to the challenges of conflict, fragility and crisis, recognizing that sustainable development and peace and security are mutually dependent. It brings together the EU's diplomatic action, including mediation, action and support to third parties, with development engagement and other tools.


  - The EU Development cooperation policy through the Agenda for Change, the European Neighbourhood Policy and the EU Enlargement Policy are contributing towards achieving peaceful and inclusive societies, rule of law, effective and capable institutions. The EU supports judicial reforms in the enlargement and key neighbourhood countries in order to contribute to effective and independent justice and security sector systems. Through its financial assistance and political dialogues the EU is promoting a broader concept of security, encompassing inclusive and accountable institutions at all levels to strengthen resilience of states and societies. The EU invests in reinforcing key democratic actors – parliaments, civil society, independent media, human right defenders, non-governmental organisations, election administrations and domestic observers, local authorities, anticorruption services and will continue efforts to promote dialogue between different stakeholders. Following the adoption in 2016 of the new EU framework in support to security sector reform, the EU has set up measures to enhance the effectiveness in supporting stability, security and development in third countries. Inter alia through an extension of the Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace, more comprehensive assistance is foreseen for security sector actors in partner countries, in line with the objective of achieving sustainable development.


  - The EU is committed to promoting and protecting human rights and to support accountable and inclusive democracy worldwide including through political dialogues, mainstreaming of human rights values and principles, and dedicated financial and technical assistance programmes (e.g. through the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights). The EU has an Action Plan in place on Human Rights and Democracy covering the period 2015-2019. Moreover, over the years, human rights dialogues have been established with an increasing number of third countries in order to ensure access to justice. These dialogues are key instruments for the EU to bilaterally engage on human rights, including on specific themes such as non-discrimination, torture, the death penalty, freedom of religion or belief, access to justice and fair trials, freedom of expression and economic, social and cultural rights etc. Furthermore, the EU is supporting programmes on improving prisons, police training and support to the judiciary and national human rights institutions. There is also a framework in place to support transitional justice. The EU also deploys Election Observation Missions that promote accountable and transparent electoral processes and active participation of citizens during the entire electoral cycle.


  -The Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace is one of the key tools that the EU has to respond to crisis and/or to rapidly intervene to preserve peace and prevent conflict. It supports not only urgent short-term actions in response to situations of crisis or emerging crisis, often complementing

  EU humanitarian assistance

  , but also longer-term capacity building of organisations engaged in crisis response and peace-building.


  - The EU responds to risks of violent conflict, drawing on the EU's Conflict Early Warning System and joint analysis to drive effective early responses to crises situations. The EU is mainstreaming conflict sensitivity in the programming and implementation of its cooperation to engage in preventive action towards conflicts. The EU engages in international dialogue and cooperation on peace building, notably through the International Dialogue for Peace Building and State Building. The EU works towards strengthening resilience in partner countries as a means to address fragile situations.


  - The EU also provides support to this sustainable development goal through the mandates of many of our Common Security and Defence Policy missions and operations.


  - The EU is at the forefront of international efforts to fight organised crime, combat the laundering of the proceeds of crime and to counter the financing of terrorist activities and is a party to relevant international conventions and mechanisms. For example, the EU is investing in the reduction of illicit arms flows. The EU has been successful in supporting the creation of a global Arms Trade Treaty that has established global rules for the arms trade and provides tools to fight arms trafficking. A complementary example is the EU policy on trafficking in human beings and EU cooperation with UNESCO to combat illicit trafficking of cultural goods at international level.


  - Another example is EU action in the area of child protection, amongst others on child sexual abuse, trafficking, protection of children in asylum and migration, and child victims.


  - EU Trade policy also contributes as it for example aims to eliminate conflict minerals from supply chains in order to stop the financing of armed groups through trade in conflict minerals.


  - The EU humanitarian assistance promotes the global respect of international humanitarian law and humanitarian principles by implementing activities for the dissemination and implementation of international humanitarian law. It also supports protection activities and contributes to eliminating violence in crises.


  - The EU will continue to support UN reform and the participation of developing countries and civil society in processes and existing institutions, as appropriate.


  - The EU supports UN's conflict prevention and peacebuilding architecture and also regional organisations, including those with mediation and security roles such as the African Union.


  - The EU cooperates with the Council of Europe in the implementation of sustainable development goal n°16, for example in fighting corruption, promoting inclusive societies, advancing judicial reforms, and promoting democratic governance.


  - EU funding instruments such as the Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace, the Instrument for Nuclear Safety Cooperation, the European Neighbourhood Instrument, European Development Fund, the Development Cooperation Instrument, the Partnership Instrument, the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance, the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights and the Humanitarian Aid funding instrument. | - The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU brings together in a single document the fundamental rights protected in the EU. The Charter contains rights and freedoms under six titles: Dignity, Freedoms, Equality, Solidarity, Citizens' Rights, and Justice. Proclaimed in 2000, the Charter has the same legal value as the EU Treaties since the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, in December 2009.


  - The EU is committed to a better regulation agenda. This is about designing EU policies and laws so that they achieve their objectives in the most efficient and effective way possible. It is a way of working to ensure transparency when preparing, implementing and reviewing policy; to ensure evidence always informs policy making and to ensure stakeholders are involved. To ensure that EU action is - and remains - effective, the Commission assesses the expected and actual impact of policies and legislation and other important measures at every stage – from planning to implementation, review and revision.


  - The EU has legislation in place to ensure environmental assessments are carried out so that the environmental implications of decisions, including disaster risk implications, are taken into account before these decisions are made. This applies both for individual projects, such as a dam, motorway, airport or factory (Environmental Impact Assessments), and for public plans or programmes which are prepared for agriculture, forestry, fisheries, energy, industry, transport, waste management, water management, telecommunications, tourism, town and country planning or land use (Strategic Environmental Assessments).


  - Since the EU has become a party to the UNECE Aarhus Convention on access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters, the EU has set up several legal instruments to support public access to environmental information. EU legislation also gives the public rights to participate in decision-making that affects the environment.


  - The EU has adopted a new initiative, the Environmental Implementation Review. It aims to support delivering the objectives of existing EU environmental policies and legislation in an inclusive and participatory manner through better knowledge about implementation gaps and their root causes, and providing new solutions complementary to legal enforcement. The plan is to publish country-specific reports every two years focusing on essential topics in the area of environmental legislation, followed by country specific dialogues, a peer-to-peer programme and other actions to support Member States' efforts to address implementation gaps.


  - The EU is working towards a fully functioning common European area of freedom, security and justice to the benefit of citizens and companies. The area of freedom, security and justice is based on the principle of mutual trust between the Member States and the principle of mutual recognition of judicial decisions. Obstacles to EU citizens exercising their right to move freely and live in any EU country should be removed. Businesses need to be confident that they will be able to effectively enforce contracts and handle litigation throughout the EU, without encountering the hurdles they still confront today.


  - An EU framework is in place in the field of civil, criminal and contract law to guarantee the rights of different parties involved. Judicial cooperation between the different Member States is actively promoted.


  - Effective justice systems are a prerequisite for an investment and business friendly environment by instilling confidence throughout the entire business cycle. They are also crucial for the implementation of all EU law for the strengthening of mutual trust and the fight against corruption, which has a direct impact on public budgets and the business environment. It is against this background that the improvement of the effectiveness of justice systems in Member States has been identified as a key component for structural reforms in the European Semester, the annual cycle for the coordination of economic policies at EU level. The EU monitors with the help of the Justice Scoreboard the efficiency, quality and independence of the justice systems of the Member States.


  - The EU promotes e-government through its e-government action plan 2016-2020, especially for cross-border public services in the framework of the digital single market, for example through a common framework for citizen's electronic identity management (eID).


  - The European Agenda on security sets out the main actions envisaged to ensure an effective EU response to terrorism and security threats in the European Union over the period 2015-2020. The Agenda identified three priorities: tackling terrorism and preventing radicalisation, disrupting organised crime, and fighting cybercrime. Other areas of EU intervention include the fight against trafficking in human beings and firearms, the fight against corruption, financial crime and counterfeiting crime.


  - The Structural Reform Support Service (SRSS) was set up by the Commission in July 2015 to help EU Member States address implementation challenges of structural reforms, timely and adequate transposition of the Union acquis and efficient and effective use of EU funds. The Service coordinates and provides tailor-made technical support to EU Member States, in cooperation with the relevant Commission services. The objective of providing such support to Member States is to help build more effective institutions, stronger governance frameworks and efficient public administrations.


  - As the EU's first investment arm, EU Cohesion Policy has a thematic objective dedicated to enhancing institutional capacity of public authorities and stakeholders and efficient public administration. Through the Cohesion Policy inclusive societies are further reinforced by building non-segregated infrastructure and community-based services. Also, sustainable development is a legally binding cross-cutting principle, which is mainstreamed at all stages of the implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds.


  - EU funding instruments such as the European Structural and Investment Funds; the Rights, Equality and Citizens Programme; the Justice Programme; the Internal Security Fund and Horizon 2020. |
| 17. Strengthen Means of Implemen-tation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development | The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: a stronger global actor; democratic change |
| | - The EU and its Member States have renewed their collective commitment to provide 0.7% of GNI in Official Development Assistance (ODA) to developing countries, including a commitment of 0.15-0.20% of GNI as Official Development Assistance to Least Developed Countries (LDCs).


  - The EU is committed to the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA) which details the means of Implementation for the new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable development. Through its development cooperation policy, neighbourhood policy, enlargement policy and trade policy, the EU will further contribute to strengthening the means of implementation and revitalising the global partnership for sustainable development. The Addis Ababa Action Agenda notably recognises the contribution of trade policy to inclusive growth and sustainable development, and includes a commitment to integrate sustainable development into trade policy at all levels, a commitment which was pushed through by the EU. This dimension is fully reflected in the Trade for All Strategy.


  - The EU has been leading the way in integrating sustainable development objectives into trade policy and making trade an effective tool to promote sustainable development worldwide. In support of the 2030 Agenda, the EU will focus on implementation of the sustainable development dimensions of its Free Trade Agreements. The EU is a strong supporter of a universal, rules-based, open, non-discriminatory and equitable multilateral trading system, underpinned by the World Trade Organisation. The EU has the most open trade regime in the world for developing countries, including duty-free, quota-free market access for the least developed countries and under Economic Partnership Agreements. The generalised system of preferences (GSP) has increased exports from developing countries of products covered by up to 5%, with the Everything but Arms scheme generating export increases of approximately 10%.


  - Helping people affected by crises and disasters is a global concern and includes coordination at the global level, as essential way to ensure efficient and effective provision of aid to those that need it most. The EU humanitarian assistance includes working in close partnership with a large number of humanitarian and development UN and Civil Society international organisations, through for example, Strategic Dialogues, UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the Good Humanitarian Donorship platform. The Commission also supports a more effective involvement of a broader range of actors in humanitarian contexts, including of the local communities, non-DAC (OECD

  Development Assistance Committee

  ) donors, the private sector and regional organisations. The EU Aid Volunteers Initiative works together with volunteers in vulnerable communities to strengthen their resilience to disasters and to build local capacities. Moreover, the creation of national and local volunteering frameworks and schemes in third countries can be instrumental to increase the capacity of countries to cope with disasters as local communities are the first responders.


  - The EU is also committed to development effectiveness. It participates actively in the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation. The EU and its Member States are also increasingly using Joint Programming to improve the coherence and impact of EU interventions in partner countries. The EU also continues to be a champion of aid transparency and publishes comprehensive data to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) standard, in addition to its OECD reporting requirements. The EU has developed an International Development and Cooperation Results Framework, which is reported against on an annual basis. The EU is moreover committed to the use of partner country systems, and is the donor which makes the most use of budget support modalities.


  - In the run-up to the Paris Climate Agreement, European Climate Diplomacy played a key role in achieving an ambitious global climate agreement. The EU's and Member States' efforts to keep climate change high on the political agendas in all multi- and bilateral dialogues with 3rd countries and close cooperation with non-state actors (local/ regional governments, civil society, business and financial sectors) together with an unprecedented mobilisation of our diplomatic services around the world, paved the way to the success of the Paris Climate Agreement. The European Climate Diplomacy continues to play a driving role in supporting partners in the implementation of the Paris agreement.


  - On finance, the EU aims to adapt its financing modalities and instruments to differing country contexts and aims to target the most concessional resources to those countries with the least opportunity to raise finance elsewhere and the greatest shortfalls. The EU is committed to promoting innovative financing to developing countries, including through blending. The EU Blending Framework covers all regions of EU external cooperation. The External Investment Plan and the related proposed European Fund for Sustainable Development will also be an important tool in this respect. In addition, the EU is strengthening close synergies between blending and budget support for increased development impact. Budget support helps to improve the institutional environment for private investments in areas such as public finance management, procurement, sector development policies, macroeconomic stability and overall economic governance, and thus facilitates the increased use of blending, including in low income countries.


  - The EU continues to demonstrate its support for domestic resource mobilisation reforms in developing countries through its 'Collect More – Spend Better' initiative, as well as for improved tax transparency and the fight against tax evasion and avoidance. It is a member of the Addis Tax Initiative. Domestic resources mobilisation reforms not only contribute to financing but also foster the improvement of economic governance, in particular through enhanced accountability of the government towards taxpayers, more transparent and responsible management of public expenditure and the fight against corruption. The EU's 'Collect more–spend better' initiative is a key concept for the implementation of the commitments to support domestic resource mobilisation in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda.


  - The EU is committed together with its G20 partners to enhance global macroeconomic stability and promote sound and sustainable financing practices.


  - In terms of policies, governance and institutions, the EU supports many partner countries working to improve their governance, taking account of political, economic, social, cultural and environmental dimensions. The EU also continues to have many mutually beneficial sectoral dialogues with third countries, and sectoral cooperation and partnerships with third countries at national as well as at sub-regional and regional level.





  - On science, technology and innovation, the EU's research and innovation programme, Horizon 2020, is fully open to participation of researchers from non-EU countries. Researchers from developing countries can receive financial grants as well. Horizon 2020 offers a framework and resources for the co-development, co-design and/or co-adaptation of technologies and solutions for a durable sustainable development.


  - Capacity building lies at the heart of the EU's approach to development cooperation. The EU has based its development partnerships with developing country governments and civil society around the millennium development goals. These will be reoriented around the sustainable development goals, taking full account of developing countries own priorities and building on existing cooperation programmes.


  - The EU is committed to promoting knowledge sharing with all development partners. The Commission in 2009 launched "Capacity4Dev", a knowledge sharing platform that now has over 19,300 members including staff from EU Institutions, Member States, partner governments, civil society, academia and the private sector. Capacity4dev aims to improve capacity development through knowledge sharing by consolidating knowledge and building an institutional memory, by supporting thematic expertise, by enabling cross-learning among practitioners from the EU institutions and other organisations and by consolidating knowledge sharing tools and communities of practice around a common environment.


  - The EU is a global leader on policy coherence for development. By helping to promote the positive impact of EU policies in developing countries, this is an important contributor to policy coherence for sustainable development. For example, the policy dialogue around EU's budget support programmes on consolidating democracies, building capacity, pursuing sustainable and inclusive growth and eradicating poverty, contributes to enhancing policies in partner countries and strengthen capacities.


  - In recent years, the EU has significantly strengthened its partnerships on sustainable development and poverty eradication with other stakeholders, including the private sector, civil society, local authorities, academics, private foundations and southern development cooperation partners. The EU supports the development of a structured dialogue with the private sector, notably in the framework of the European External Investment Plan, and of multi-stakeholder approaches.


  - On data monitoring and accountability, the EU supports data collection initiatives in developing countries. In the framework of budget support programmes, the EU for example supports technical assistance for improvements in national statistical systems and performance measurement of public policies.


  - The EU is promoting the use of Earth observation to supplement statistical analysis in the assessment of indicators towards the attainment of the sustainable development goals. Earth observation and geospatial information provide reliable, unbiased and disaggregated data. The EU is a major player in Earth Observation, particularly being a co-chair of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and managing the European Earth Observation programme Copernicus. With its fleet of Sentinel satellites, the EU provides access to a wealth of data and information in areas ranging from land coverage, urban evolution and oceans to atmospheric pollution, ecosystem protection, climate change, energy production and health conditions.


  - EU funding instruments such as the proposed European Fund for Sustainable Development, the European Development Fund, the Development Cooperation Fund, the external component of Horizon 2020 and the European Neighbourhood Instrument and the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance. | - The EU is committed to a better regulation agenda. This is about designing EU policies and laws so that they achieve their objectives in the most efficient and effective way possible. It ensures that impacts across the environmental, social and economic pillars of sustainable development are scrutinised throughout European policies and as such contributes to policy coherence. Moreover, it is a way of working to ensure transparency when preparing, implementing and reviewing policy; to ensure evidence always informs policy making and to ensure stakeholders are involved. To ensure that EU action is - and remains - effective, the Commission assesses the expected and actual impact of policies and legislation and other important measures at every stage – from planning to implementation, review and revision.


  - The EU helps Member States in their fight against tax avoidance and illicit financial flows; it promotes macro-economic stability, strengthened policies and institutions, knowledge and innovation, trade, investment and private sector engagement.


  - A successful sustainable development agenda requires partnerships between the EU, governments, social partners, the private sector and civil society. Developing and fostering this dialogue is an essential element of the European model of cooperation, of which for EU policy making some examples are given below:


  - The Europe 2020 strategy is a shared strategy shared among the European institutions, the member states and the social partners. At EU level, each institution has a part to play in making sure the EU is taking the necessary action to help reach the Europe 2020 targets. At Member State level, full ownership is essential from Heads of States and governments, including regional and local levels. Civil society, social partners and other stakeholders, also have an important role to play, for example in monitoring follow-up on the ground.


  - A key tool for ensuring a high level of coordination in external outreach by EU institutions and EU Member States is the 

  Green Diplomacy Network

  (GDN), initially created in 2003. The GDN, managed by the European External Action Service, brings together foreign ministry officials from Member States with the European Commission and the European External Action Service to work on issues of climate change and environment. For more than a decade it has successfully coordinated EU outreach on environment and climate policy through events, seminars, public diplomacy actions and official demarches to third countries.


  - Also the EU Policy on Corporate Social Responsibility/Responsible Business Conduct puts focus on reinforced public-private multi-stakeholders partnerships.


  - Another example is the nearly EUR 77 billion Horizon 2020 framework programme for research and innovation which through partnerships pools Europe’s resources to tackle the biggest challenges, support competitiveness of sectors that deliver high quality jobs, develop closer synergies with national and regional programmes, and encourage greater private investment in research and innovation. This results for example in Joint Technology Initiatives, Public-Public Partnerships or contractual public-private partnerships. Horizon 2020 is expected to contribute at least 60% of its budget to sustainable development and 35% to climate action.


  - Cohesion policy is developed and implemented in a 'partnership principle' engaging a broad range of stakeholders. Each programme is developed through a collective process involving a very broad range of stakeholders at European, regional and local level. This includes regional and local authorities, socio-economic partners and civil society organisations. The partnership principle applies to all stages of the programming process and their implementation. This approach not only helps to ensure that action is adapted to local and regional needs and priorities, but also facilitates ownership and commitment of regional and local stakeholders.


  - The EU has adopted a new initiative, the Environmental Implementation Review. It aims to support delivering the objectives of existing EU environmental policies and legislation in an inclusive and participatory manner through better knowledge about implementation gaps and their root causes, and providing new solutions complementary to legal enforcement. The plan is to publish country-specific reports every two years focusing on essential topics in the area of environmental legislation, followed by country specific dialogues, a peer-to-peer programme and other actions to support Member States' efforts to address implementation gaps. |

Sustainable development goals

Examples of key existing European actions in this field

External actions

Domestic/EU oriented actions

1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere

The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: jobs, growth and investment; a deeper and fairer internal market; a deeper and fairer economic and monetary union; migration; a stronger global actor

- One of the priorities of EU external action is to foster the sustainable economic, social and environmental development of developing countries, with the primary aim of eradicating poverty.

- The EU development cooperation policy: the 2005 European Consensus on Development and its 2016 update committing the Council, European Parliament and Commission to a common vision on development policy with the primary objective of poverty eradication in the context of sustainable development. The Agenda for Change, the basis for the EU's development policy, has informed the current programming period 2014-2020, and addresses among its priorities human development through a multi-dimensional approach to poverty. The EU's assistance in the framework of development cooperation policies follows a rights-based approach, encompassing all human rights, and focuses on Least Developed Countries and Lower Income Countries, where extreme poverty is mostly concentrated. The overall contribution to poverty reduction is significant, via the contributions to macroeconomic stabilisation, improved public finance management and trade frameworks, strengthened transport networks and increased public expenditure in social sectors.

- The EU and its Member States are committed to delivering on their Official Development Aid commitments, including the collective commitment of 0.7% of GNI by 2030 and the new commitment of 0.15% of GNI by 2020 and 0.2% of GNI by 2030 to least developed countries. EU budget support is providing predictable resources for partner government's budgets for the eradication of poverty, pursuit of sustainable economic growth and the consolidation of democracies.

- The European neighbourhood policy inter alia seeks to address sources of instability across sectors. As poverty is a root of instability, it makes a determined effort to support economies and improve prospects for the local population.

- With its trade and investment policy the EU is committed to actively helping people around the world trade their way out of poverty. Europe has opened its markets to all imports from the world's poorest countries notably through its unrivalled Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) and Economic Partnership Agreements, and works actively to

  help developing countries

  build the capacity to take advantage of trade in particular through its Aid for Trade assistance.

- The external dimension of the EU climate policy, focusing on the implementation of the Paris Agreement - the legally binding global climate deal - will through its actions in third countries help fight poverty in those countries.

- The EU provides needs-based humanitarian assistance to save lives, reduce suffering, reduce risks and restore human dignity. EU humanitarian aid covers intervention areas such as

  food

  and

  nutrition

  ,

  shelter

  ,

  health care

  , water,

  sanitation

  and hygiene (WASH), disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation and education in emergencies. The Action Plan for Resilience in Crisis Prone Countries 2013-2020 sets the ways forward for a more effective EU collaborative action on building resilience, bringing together humanitarian action, long-term development cooperation and on-going political engagement, thereby contributing to poverty eradication. Resilience aims at protecting vulnerable populations from the shocks and stresses that keep people in poverty whilst providing services, livelihoods and opportunities to address the underlying causes of their vulnerability – to "leave no-one behind". These goals are addressed in the Action Plan on the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, which reflects the implementation of the Sendai Framework across all relevant EU policies and promotes a disaster risk-informed approach for all EU policies, and in the EU Aid Volunteers Initiative that works together with volunteers in vulnerable communities.

- The European Union has adopted a new development approach to forced displacement, based on joint engagement of host governments, international donors, humanitarian and development actors, local communities, civil society, diaspora and the displaced themselves. It aims to help people to cope with future crisis and shocks by investing in peoples capacities for self-reliance and resilience, while targeting and supporting the most vulnerable.

- EU funding instruments such as the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, the European Neighbourhood Instrument, the European Development Fund, the Development Cooperation Instrument and the Humanitarian Aid funding instrument.

- The EU supports and complements the Member States' policies in the fields of social inclusion and social protection.

- The Europe 2020 Strategy and more specifically the headline target to reduce poverty and social exclusion by lifting at least 20 million people out of the risk of poverty and social exclusion. Progress towards this Europe 2020 target is encouraged and monitored through the

  European Semester

  , the EU's yearly cycle of economic and budgetary coordination. The Annual Convention for Inclusive Growth has been launched involving a wide range of stakeholders in discussing policy initiatives designed to help reach the 2020 target.

- The Commission is moreover working towards a concrete European pillar of social rights, which will identify a number of essential principles which will serve as a compass for upwards convergence as regards social and labour market performances, focusing on the needs and challenges in the field of employment and social policies. One of the main areas covered is adequate social protection, including income support and access to essential services, together with other relevant principles to combat poverty, including inter alia those on fairly remunerated wages, prevention of the misuse or abuse of precarious and non-permanent employment relationships, ensuring transitions from temporary to open-ended contracts.

- The proposed European Solidarity Corps will enable young people across the EU to volunteer their help where it is needed most, for example related to activities addressing social challenges, such as social exclusion and poverty.

- The European Disability Strategy 2010-2020 aims at supporting the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the EU. One key issue is reducing the current existing gap on poverty risk between those with disabilities and the rest of the population.

- Addressing rural poverty, the Common Agricultural Policy aims inter alia to ensure a decent standard of living for farmers and viable rural communities. Agriculture is a key vector for poverty reduction in particular in rural areas.

- The Common Fisheries Policy aims for a fair standard of living for fishing communities.

- The EU Cohesion Policy is the EU’s main investment policy, whose core mission is to achieve economic, social and territorial cohesion by reducing disparities between the levels of development of the various regions. For the 2014-2020 period, it provides about EUR 350 billion of investments into smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. It has a thematic objective dedicated to promoting social inclusion and combatting poverty and discrimination. It contributes to poverty reduction through its investments in housing, employment creation, regeneration of deprived urban and rural areas, the modernisation of public services and many other areas. Finally, sustainable development is a legally binding cross-cutting principle, which is mainstreamed at all stages of the implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds.

- The EU Civil Protection policy aims at strengthening resilience to disaster at all levels of EU Member States. It aims to strengthen the cooperation and coordination within the EU in the field of civil protection, in order to improve the effectiveness of systems for preventing, preparing for and responding to natural and man-made disasters.

- EU funding instruments such as the European Structural Investment Funds
  1
  ; the

  Employment and Social Innovation Programme

  ; the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived; the Civil Protection Mechanism and the Instrument for Emergency Support within the Union.

2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture

The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: jobs, growth and investment; a deeper and fairer internal market; a deeper and fairer economic and monetary union; migration; a stronger global actor

- The EU development cooperation policy: the Agenda for Change focuses on sectors setting the foundations for inclusive and sustainable growth thanks to their multiplier impacts on developing countries' economies, such as sustainable agriculture and access to energy. This involves inter alia support to agricultural growth in developing countries with a focus on small-scale farmers, promoting sustainable agricultural practices, fighting under nutrition and stunting, and strengthening resilience to climate, economic and political shocks of the most vulnerable populations. A coherent set of EU development policies further defines the scope of EU action on food and nutrition security, namely the 2010 EU Policy framework to assist developing countries in addressing food security challenges, the 2012 Communication on Resilience and the 2013 Communication on Nutrition. The EU also pursues human development actions to tackle hunger, notably on malnutrition (EU Food and Nutrition intervention and global initiatives like Scaling Up Nutrition) and on ensuring sustainable and climate-resilient agriculture, contributing to meeting food demand.

- The EU provides needs-based humanitarian assistance to the people hit by man-made and natural disasters with particular attention to the most vulnerable victims. This also includes the provision of nutritious and safe food, such as emergency food assistance and treatment of severe acute under-nutrition in crisis situations. The Action Plan for Resilience in Crisis Prone Countries 2013-2020 includes food and nutrition security as priority areas. The EU also supports the new international Food Assistance Convention (FAC), which promotes an up to-date and modernised food assistance approach.

- The EU Trade and Investment Policy: the EU is leading the efforts to tackle agricultural export competition which would support farmers world-wide. In this context the EU was instrumental in the adoption in 2015 of the Nairobi WTO agreement to "eliminate all forms of agriculture export subsidies". The EU is fully open to all products from least developed countries and has included open terms in its economic partnership agreement (trade preferences, Economic Partnership Agreements). The EU promotes policy coherence for development in relation to agriculture and trade, and EU funds are no longer used to subsidise exports outside the EU. Also in its other trade and investment relations with third countries the EU pays particular attention to food security, sustainable agriculture and fisheries, as it the case for the European Neighbourhood Policy, the Enlargement policy, the Common Agricultural Policy and the Common Fisheries Policy.

-Through its work on food policy at multilateral and bilateral level and the use of the “Better Training for Safer Food” training tool (BTSF) the Commission builds capacity in third countries to increase the understanding of international and European sanitary and phytosanitary standards. The EU agricultural and sanitary and phytosanitary standards policies intend to secure a sustainable food value chain for all.

- Further support to third countries is provided through the EU's research and innovation policy. Horizon 2020 for example supports the EU-Africa Research and Innovation Partnership on food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture as well as the EU-China Food, Agriculture and Biotechnology Flagship Initiative.

- EU funding instruments such as the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, European Neighbourhood Instrument, European Development Fund, Development Cooperation Instrument, the Humanitarian Aid funding instrument and the external component of Horizon 2020.

- The Common Agricultural Policy is helping European farmers to contribute meeting the food demand of more than 500 million Europeans and on international markets (agro-food exports are worth over EUR 120 billion). The common agricultural policy's main objectives are to provide a stable, sustainably produced supply of safe and high quality food at affordable prices for consumers. Sustainability was and will remain a key factor in respectively the past and future reforms of the common agricultural policy. It supports several sustainable agricultural practices through its green direct payments and rural development measures, such as agri-environment and organic farming measures. It also promotes healthy diets among schoolchildren through the EU School Fruit and Vegetables and Milk Scheme.

- The Common Fisheries Policy aims to ensure that fishing and aquaculture are environmentally sustainable, competitive and economically viable, contribute to the availability of food supplies, with a fair standard of living for those who depend on fishing activities and aims to promote aquaculture.

- The EU environmental and climate policy aims to ensure an environmentally friendly agriculture in Europe thereby contributing to sustainable agriculture, in view of the protection, preservation and improvement in the quality of water, air and soil, in the abundance of bio-diversity and in preservation and enrichment of the EU's landscape. Examples include the 7th Environment Action Programme (the agreed framework for EU environment policy until 2020), the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020, or European rules on the sustainable use of pesticides which underline the link with health policy aspects. To improve resource efficiency in food production and reduce impact on water resources, the EU is also promoting sustainable nutrients management in agriculture. The National Emission Ceilings Directive for air pollutants, the Member States' targets to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions as well as the proposal to integrate the land use sector into the EU 2030 Climate and Energy Framework are policy tools that incentivise Member States to take additional sustainable action in their agriculture sectors.

- The EU is also contributing through its innovation policy. For example, a European Innovation Partnership for Agricultural productivity and Sustainability was set up. Also, Horizon 2020, the EU Research and Innovation programme invests in projects related to the societal challenges of food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture. A new activity to mobilise resources and stakeholders around a common research and innovation agenda for food and nutrition security is FOOD 2030. FOOD 2030 will explore at EU level what is needed to transform and future-proof our food systems to be sustainable, resilient, competitive, diverse, responsible and performant in their provision of accessible, healthy and sustainable food and diets for all.

- EU food policy aims to ensure all food marketed in the EU is safe through coherent farm-to-table measures and adequate monitoring. The EU's regulations and standards contribute in a cross-cutting way to related policies on agriculture and environment. The policy on food waste, food information, food reformulation, food safety and crisis preparedness are all relevant examples in this respect. For example, the Better Training for Safer Food initiative provides for tailor-made training at EU level to ensure the correct implementation of EU sanitary and phytosanitary standards and foster harmonisation between its Member States. Also, EU nutrition initiatives include work with Member States on an action plan addressing childhood obesity.

- EU funding instruments such as the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund, the European Structural and Investment Funds, the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived, the Programme for the Environment and Climate Action (LIFE), Horizon 2020 and the Emergency Support Instrument.

3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: jobs, growth and investment; a digital single market; a deeper and fairer internal market; a deeper and fairer economic and monetary union; migration; a stronger global actor

- In its bilateral and multilateral cooperation the EU pursues cooperation on health issues with third countries and international organisations, setting a general framework for cooperation on public health. This is done mainly through the EU development cooperation policy, the European Neighbourhood Policy and the EU Enlargement Policy. The EU for example promotes the reduction of communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDs, hepatitis & tuberculosis in its neighbouring countries. Moreover, in its development cooperation policy and its partnerships at the global level, the EU favours broad sector support to strengthen health systems and work towards universal health coverage, allowing countries to tackle issues such as health workforce, health sector financing, maternal and child mortality, infectious and non-communicable diseases, access to sexual and reproductive healthcare services, and health crises prevention, preparedness and response. Also, at the global level the EU supports global health initiatives such as the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (Gavi) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

- The EU also supports health research in developing countries. It for example participates in the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) to support collaborative research that accelerates the clinical development of new or improved interventions to prevent or treat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected infectious diseases in sub-Saharan Africa Programme.

- The EU also promotes a global health agenda to have better access to medicines in developing countries, including support for a permanent waiver for least developed countries for pharmaceutical products under the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of IPRs (TRIPs).

- The EU is moreover actively participating to the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020, with a focus on low-income countries which are presenting the highest road traffic fatality rates.

- The EU provides needs-based humanitarian assistance to the people hit by man-made and natural disasters. Health is both a core sector of humanitarian aid interventions, and the main reference for measuring overall humanitarian response. Humanitarian health programmes seek to save lives, and limit disability and disease in emergencies by ensuring access to free health services. The European Commission and the countries participating in the EU Civil Protection Mechanism have launched the European Medical Corps, to help mobilise medical and public health teams and equipment for sudden emergencies, inside and outside the EU.

- The EU also cooperates with the World Health Organization (WHO), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and other relevant UN bodies as well as G7/G20.

- The EU and its 28 Member States are Parties to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) with reporting commitments and obligations and the EU has recently ratified the Illicit Trade protocol adopted under this Framework Convention.

- The EU cooperates internationally in the fight on antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which is recognised as a global threat at UN level and supports the implementation of the World Health Organization Global Action Plan on antimicrobial resistance. The Commission is contributing towards global antimicrobial resistance efforts, working with partner countries outside the EU and through various global and regional activities.

- The EU supports affordable and essential medicines and vaccines for all. The EU orphan medicinal legislation has triggered investments for the development of medicines for communicable diseases for instance, and the European Medicines Agency gives scientific opinions in the context of World Health Organization cooperation for the evaluation of certain medicinal products intended for markets outside the EU. For well-known substances, the EU also promotes the World Health Organization Prequalification programme for vaccines.

- The EU supports the global implementation of the International Health Regulations, on cross-border health threats and outbreak response, and contributes to global initiatives to strengthen preparedness and response to health emergencies.

- EU funding instruments such as the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, the European Neighbourhood Instrument, the European Development Fund, the Development Cooperation Instrument, the Civil Protection Mechanism, the Humanitarian Aid funding instrument and the external component of Horizon 2020.

- The EU supports, coordinates and complements the Member States in their health policy. Member States have the main responsibility for their health care policy and for the organisation of their healthcare. Universal health coverage is an objective of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Several EU policies are contributing to healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages:

- In relation to addressing communicable diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and hepatitis, the Commission supports Member States and civil society organisations at combatting these major serious diseases through joint actions and action plans in the EU and its neighbouring countries. The Commission is updating and extending its work to help meet the target of ending AIDS and tuberculosis and combating hepatitis. In addition, the EU has specific responsibilities to coordinate action to address serious cross-border health threats, which cover communicable disease health threats and other health threats (biological, chemical, environmental).

- In relation to chronic, non-communicable diseases and mental health and well-being the Commission co-funds joint actions with Member States on chronic diseases and ageing, mental health, cancer, dementia, physical activity, nutrition and obesity and concluded a joint action on alcohol under the Health Programme.

- European Reference Networks are facilitating access to diagnosis and treatment of rare and complex diseases across Member States. The EU is moreover investing in the health workforce which includes joint actions to support Member States to invest in health workforce planning and health workforce skills analysis.

-In the area of vaccination, the Commission supports the Member States in shaping measures to address scarcity of vaccines and to increase vaccine coverage.

- The EU regulates on tobacco control (for example on advertising and product regulation) and is also working with the Member States on the implementation of the related legislation through a joint action under the Health programme.

- The EU aims for effective, accessible and resilient health systems and has defined ‘increasing accessibility to healthcare’ as one of the three pillars for an EU agenda for health systems. In the context of the European Semester the EU has developed country-specific knowledge on health systems, complemented by its "State of Health in the EU" Cycle. It cooperates with Member States in this respect inter alia on eHealth, health technology assessment and rare diseases through the cross-border care legislation.

- The EU is also active in relation to antimicrobial resistance: an Action Plan on antimicrobial resistance is in place. An evaluation taking place in 2016 supports continued action at the EU level and follow up actions are planned. It is based on a 'One Health' approach taking into account all potential sources and all sectorial aspects.

- In relation to serious cross-border threats to health, the EU has a framework in place to improve preparedness and strengthen the capacity to coordinate response to health emergencies across the EU, including cooperation on antimicrobial resistance and helping Member States implement the International Health Regulations. This framework includes an early warning and response system and a mechanism for the coordination of response.

- The EU youth strategy also pays particular attention to the health and well-being of the young people. The Commission also supports Member States with the implementation of the Action Plan of Childhood Obesity and of the Action Plan on Youth Drinking and on Heavy Episodic Drinking.

- The proposed European Solidarity Corps will enable young people across the EU to volunteer their help where it is needed most, for example related to activities addressing social challenges, such as health and demographic challenges.

- With environmental stressors such as air and noise pollution having significant impacts on health, the EU climate and environmental policy also increases health and well-being, for example through its ambitious climate policies as well as through specific air quality, noise, and industrial emissions legislation or through its water policy.

- EU Cohesion Policy is the EU’s main investment policy, whose core mission is to achieve economic, social and territorial cohesion, by reducing disparities between EU regions, also in terms of endowment of health services. EU Cohesion Policy has a thematic objective dedicated to promoting social inclusion and tackle poverty and discrimination by for example investing in health and social infrastructure, reducing inequalities in terms of health status and promoting social inclusion through improved access to social, cultural and recreational services. In addition, there is a funding precondition (i.e. ex-ante conditionality) on existence of a policy framework on health, which ensures that the necessary prerequisites for effective and efficient EU investment are in place. Finally, sustainable development is a legally binding cross-cutting principle, which is mainstreamed at all stages of the implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds.

- The EU is promoting research and innovation with the framework programme Horizon 2020 which invests in innovative solutions that help tackle the adverse effects on human health related to pollution, climate change, and transport safety. Horizon 2020 for example contributes EUR 1 billion to the fight against antimicrobial resistance. Innovation in the healthcare sector is also supported via the Innovative Medicines Initiative, which was set up as a joint undertaking between the EU and the pharmaceutical industry, as well as via the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing and the Health Knowledge and Innovation Community within the European Institute for Innovation and Technology (EIT).

- The Commission is moreover working towards a concrete European pillar of social rights, which will identify a number of essential principles which will serve as a compass for upwards convergence as regards social and labour market performances, focusing on the needs and challenges in the field of employment and social policies. One of the main areas covered is adequate social protection, including health care and sickness benefits, and long term care, and access to essential services.

- The EU set a road safety target of halving European road deaths by 50 % by 2020. A mix of measures aims at making users, vehicles and infrastructure safer.

- Under the Union Civil Protection Mechanism, the EU is contributing to the development and better integration of transnational detection and early warning and alert systems, in order to enable a rapid response, also in relation to health issues. To help mobilise medical and public health teams and equipment for sudden emergencies inside and outside the EU, the Commission together with the countries participating in the EU Civil Protection Mechanism have launched the European Medical Corps.

- The European Disability Strategy 2010-2020 contains actions to foster access to health services and related facilities for persons with disabilities.

- The EU is strengthening the ecosystem of social economy enterprises and actors in the EU, a lot of them working in the health sector and bringing innovative concrete added value to it.

- EU funding instruments such as the Health Programme, the European Structural and Investment Funds, the Programme for the Environment and Climate Action (LIFE), Horizon 2020 (including through the European Institute of Innovation & Technology EIT), the Fund for European Aid to the most Deprived, the Civil Protection Mechanism and the Emergency Support Instrument.

4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning opportuni-ties for all

The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: jobs, growth and investment; a digital single market; a deeper and fairer economic and monetary union, a deeper and fairer internal market; a stronger global actor

- In its cooperation with partner countries the EU pursues its support to education mainly in the framework of the EU development cooperation policy, the European Neighbourhood Policy and the EU Enlargement Policy. The Agenda for Change for example sets a target of minimum 20 % expenditure on social inclusion and human development. These policies recognise the vital role of education and training in building the foundation for human, social and inclusive economic development. Education and training is also an essential means to address wider global challenges related to peace, stability and prosperity, to strengthen societal resilience, pluralism and coexistence, and also to prevent and counter violent extremism and radicalisation. Improving gender equality is a long-standing priority in EU's education programmes. In addition, the EU supports global education initiatives such as the Global Partnership for Education.

- The EU has an active policy for cooperation in education (higher education and training in particular) and training with third countries aiming to enhance the development, modernisation and internationalisation of education and training in the EU and beyond, inter alia by promoting peer-to-peer learning and comparison with education systems worldwide. The EU's Erasmus+ mobility and inter-university cooperation programme is an invaluable instrument for establishing lasting academic and cultural ties, which also promote the EU in partner countries. The programme also seeks to build the capacities of higher education institutions in developing partner countries. Overall Erasmus+ funding for developing regions will support around 150,000 mobility exchanges of university students and staff, 1000 capacity building projects in higher education and around 27,000 scholarships for Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degrees, primarily for partner countries across the world. Another example is the support provided to higher education in Africa through the Joint Africa-EU Strategy, notably contributing to the harmonisation and enhancement of higher education on the African continent.

- The European neighbourhood policy and the EU Enlargement Policy invests in the development, modernisation and internationalisation of higher education and improved student and academic mobility in the EU’s neighbouring partner countries.

- The EU provides needs-based humanitarian assistance to the people hit by man-made and natural disasters with particular attention to the most vulnerable victims. EU humanitarian aid helps children affected by conflict and disasters through, among others, support to 'Education in Emergencies', which offers educational services and measures support to children in conflicts and complex emergencies.

- As Parties to the UNESCO 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, the EU and its Member States also promote the ratification and implementation of the Convention by third countries.

- EU funding instruments such as the European Development Fund, the Development Cooperation Instrument, the European Neighbourhood Instrument, the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, the Humanitarian Aid funding instrument, the Partnership Instrument and the external component of Horizon 2020. Education is also a key dimension European Union Trust Funds such as the Regional Trust Fund for the Syrian crisis (the Madad Fund) and the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa.

- Each EU Member State is responsible for its own education and training system. EU-level policy cooperation is designed to support, coordinate or supplement Member States' actions in addressing common challenges.

- A key element is the strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training (ET 2020), which is a forum for the exchange and dissemination of best practices and support for policy reforms. Member States agreed under Education and Training 2020 seven benchmarks that are monitored annually, on early school-leaving; tertiary education attainment; early childhood education and care; underachievement in reading, maths and science; employment rate of recent graduates and adult participation in learning. Since end 2015 reinforced attention is also given to inclusive education, equality, equity, non-discrimination and the promotion of civic competences.

- The new Skills Agenda for Europe launches a number of actions to ensure that the right training, the right skills and the right support is available to people in the European Union. It aims at making better use of the skills that are available; equip people with the needed skills to help them find quality jobs and improve their life chances through making vocational education and training first choice and ensure upskilling pathways. The EU invites Members States, social partners, the industry and other stakeholders to work together to improve the quality and relevance of skills formation; make skills more visible and comparable; and to improve skills intelligence and information for better career choices. The new

  Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition

  is the new flag ship initiative.

- The Erasmus+ programme is a key contributor at EU level on skills enhancement, improved career prospects and employability of young people, while increasing understanding of different cultures, by supporting learning mobility across borders of students, trainees, apprentices, volunteers and other youth exchanges. It will support at least 4 million mobilities in the period 2014-2020.

-The Commission is moreover working towards a concrete European pillar of social rights, which will identify a number of essential principles which will serve as a compass for upwards convergence as regards social and labour market performances. One of the proposed rights is that “all persons shall have access to quality education and training throughout the life course”. Moreover, other related areas covered are equal opportunities and access to the labour market, which pay particular attention to skills, education and lifelong learning.

- EU Cohesion Policy has a thematic objective dedicated to education, training and vocational training for skills and lifelong learning. In addition, sustainable development is a legally binding cross-cutting principle, which is mainstreamed at all stages of the implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds. EU cohesion funds support inclusive, non-segregated and equal access to education.

- The Europe 2020 Strategy includes a specific “education headline target” to reduce the rates of early school leaving below 10% and to ensure that at least 40% of 30-34 year-olds complete higher education. Progress towards these Europe 2020 targets is encouraged and monitored through the

  European Semester

  , the EU's yearly cycle of economic and budgetary coordination.

- In line with the UNESCO 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, the EU promotes its implementation across its EU wide policies.

- The Common Agricultural Policy provides, through its rural development programs, possibilities for training and other types of activities (workshops, coaching, demonstration projects etc.) to persons engaged in the agricultural, food and forestry sectors, land managers and SMEs operating in rural areas.

- With regard to culture, the role of the EU is to help 

  address common challenges

  in its Member States, such as the promotion of cultural diversity, including through education. As Party to the UNESCO 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, the EU promotes its implementation across all its policies.

- EU funding instruments such as the European Structural and Investment Funds, the Union Programme For Education, Training, Youth and Sport (Erasmus+ programme), Horizon 2020 (including through the European Institute of Innovation & Technology EIT) and the Emergency Support Instrument.

5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: justice and fundamental rights; a stronger global actor and a union of democratic change

- Gender equality is at the core of European values and enshrined in the EU political and legal framework. The EU strategy and action plan to promote gender equality and women's empowerment 2016-2020 aims at transforming the lives of girls and women through EU external relations by focusing on ensuring girls and women’s physical integrity, promoting their economic and social rights and their empowerment and strengthening their voice and participation.

- The EU pursues a twin-track approach to gender equality in its development cooperation policy: gender mainstreaming and gender specific actions in a number of areas. Activities range from capacity-building, support to women's empowerment, disseminating information on gender equality through guidelines to best practices and awareness raising.

- The EU Global Strategy on Foreign and Security Policy is emphasizing the importance of mainstreaming human rights and gender issues across policy sectors and institutions. Gender Equality is thus to be included in the political and policy dialogue with partner countries. For example there are EU guidelines on violence against women and girls. Gender equality is also integrated in the EU crisis management missions and operations.

- The European Neighbourhood Policy applies a gender mainstreaming policy in its relations with third countries. In the EU enlargement process, gender equality is included as one of the requirements in the action plans that the European Commission is following up in the context of accession negotiations.

- To ensure the highest quality of EU humanitarian aid policy, gender issues are always considered in EU humanitarian operations, for example through the EU humanitarian Gender-Age Marker and through support to programmes and projects linked to reproductive health in emergencies, including sexual and gender-based violence. The EU Action Plan for Resilience includes a gender perspective by underlining the role of women in building resilience in households and communities affected by crisis.

- EU Trade policy supports the external projection of the EU's work on Corporate Social Responsibility including through supportive provisions in its trade agreements.

- EU funding instruments such as the European Neighbourhood instrument, the Instrument for Pre- Accession Assistance, the European Development Fund, the European Instrument for Democracy & Human Rights, the Partnership Instrument and the Humanitarian Aid funding instrument.

- The EU has made significant progress over the last decades with regard to gender equality. This is mainly thanks to equal treatment legislation, gender mainstreaming (integration of the gender perspective into all other policies), and specific policy and funding measures for the advancement of gender equality.

- The strategic engagement for gender equality (2016-2019) sets the framework for the EU's future work towards gender equality, and is accompanied by proposed concrete actions. It sets out the Commission's work plans towards improving gender equality, in increasing female labour market participation, reducing the gender pay, earnings and pension gaps and thus fighting poverty among women, promoting equality between women and men in decision-making, and combating gender-based violence and protecting and supporting victims.

- As part of the European Semester, the EU's yearly cycle of economic and budgetary coordination, several Member States have been receiving Country-Specific Recommendations in the area of gender equality, including the availability of quality affordable (full-time) childcare, reducing financial disincentives to work or work more for second earners, the gender pay gap and the harmonisation of retirement age for men and women.

- The Commission is moreover working towards a concrete European pillar of social rights, which will identify a number of essential principles which will serve as a compass for upwards convergence as regards social and labour market performances, focusing on the needs and challenges in the field of employment and social policies. Some of the main areas covered include equal opportunities, gender equality and work-life balance.

- The EU prepares an

  Annual Report on equality between women and men

  in order to monitor progress made in the area of gender equality at EU level.

- The Commission believes that Corporate Social Responsibility is important for the sustainability, competitiveness, and innovation of EU enterprises and the EU economy and as such supports businesses to be and to become socially responsible, inter alia through the respect of gender equality in businesses.

- In the context of EU Cohesion Policy's efforts to achieve economic, territorial and social cohesion, a range of cross-cutting principles are mainstreamed: there are legally binding ex-ante conditionalities - including a horizontal one on the promotion of equality between men and women, the integration of a gender perspective and non-discrimination based on sex - which are determining the access to dedicated funding from the European Structural and Investment Funds. In addition, cohesion policy has a thematic objective dedicated to social inclusion, poverty and discrimination. Supporting women in work is another priority.

- EU funding instruments such as the Justice Programme, the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme, Horizon 2020, the European Structural and Investment Funds and the Emergency Support Instrument.

6. Ensure availability and sustainable manage-ment of water and sanitation for all

The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: jobs, growth and investment; a stronger global actor.

- The EU in its external relations, its development cooperation policy (through the European consensus and the Agenda for Change), the European Neighbourhood Policy and the EU Enlargement Policy is supporting third countries in the achievement of this sustainable development goal through bilateral assistance programmes or regional initiatives. The EU Enlargement Policy promotes the extension of EU norms to candidate countries covering water quality, waste water treatment, but also water management and flood prevention. A concrete example of such a regional initiative is the Sustainable Water Integrated Management (SWIM) programme, a Regional Technical Assistance Programme that contributes to the dissemination and effective implementation of integrated water resource management policies and sustainable practices in the Southern Mediterranean Region. From the development cooperation perspective, support to the water sector is not only focusing on access to safe drinking water and sanitation, wastewater and pollution, but also on integrated water management including for transboundary basins, contributing to water diplomacy objectives, and on cross-sectoral coordination with an improved framework for investments in multi-purpose infrastructure. Given the food-water-energy nexus, water and sanitation are important components in a range of actions in thematic fields such as rural development, energy, climate adaptation and mitigation, regional integration, environment and peace and security.

- Horizon 2020, the Union framework programme for research and innovation supports European water research and innovation, which is an important driver in support of the implementation of sustainable solutions to several water challenges in different part of the world.

- The EU provides needs-based humanitarian assistance to the people hit by man-made and natural disasters, also in the field of

  water, sanitation and hygiene

  (WASH).

- EU funding instruments such as the Development Cooperation Instrument, the European Development Fund, the European Neighbourhood instrument, the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, the Partnership Instrument, the Humanitarian Aid funding instrument and the external component of Horizon 2020.

- Protection of water resources, water ecosystems and of the water we drink and bathe in is at the cornerstones of EU environmental policy, as confirmed in the 7th Environment Action Programme (the agreed framework for EU environment policy until 2020). The EU water policy provides for a Framework to comprehensively address water protection and for achieving good ecological status for inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater. It comprises regulation including on drinking water, bathing water and urban waste water, prevention of pollution caused by nitrates, industrial emissions, pesticides and persistent organic pollutants. EU air pollution policy reduces deposition of pollutants leading to eutrophication and acidification. The EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change recognizes sustainable water management as critical to addressing the impacts of climate change in Europe. The transition to a circular economy should also lead to greater resource efficiency for example by improving the conditions for water re-use in several sectors.

- The European Innovation Partnership on Water facilitates the development of innovative solutions to address major European and global water challenges. At the same time, the European Innovation Partnership on Water supports the creation of market opportunities for these innovations, both inside and outside of Europe.

- The Common Agricultural Policy aims to promote a sustainable management of natural resources. One of the priority areas for rural development is restoring, preserving and enhancing ecosystems related to agriculture and forestry, including improving water management and increasing efficiency in water use by agriculture.

- EU Cohesion Policy has a thematic objective dedicated to preserving and protecting the environment and promoting resource efficiency and in the period 2014-2020 invests almost EUR 15 billion on water management, with a focus on improving infrastructure for drinking water supply and wastewater treatment in the less developed regions. In addition, there is a funding pre-condition (i.e. ex-ante conditionality) related to the correct implementation of the EU water legislation, which ensures that the necessary conditions are in place for effective and efficient EU investments. Finally, sustainable development is a legally binding cross-cutting principle, which is mainstreamed at all stages of the implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds.

- The EU health and food safety policy also contributes to high standards on water and sanitation in terms of preventing the spread of communicable diseases and promoting universal healthcare and reducing cross-border health risks in EU Member States and through EU sanitary and phytosanitary regulations in the field of food safety.

- EU funding instruments such as the European Structural Investment Funds, the Programme for the Environment and Climate Action (LIFE), Horizon 2020 (including through the European Institute of Innovation & Technology EIT), the Civil Protection Instrument and the Emergency Support Instrument.

7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: jobs, growth and investment; a digital single market; energy union and climate; a stronger global actor

- The EU and its Member States play an important role in international energy fora, in line with the external dimension of the EU Energy Union. They have been key actors contributing to the COP 21 Paris Climate Agreement enabling the transition towards a low-carbon, climate resilient economy. The EU's external energy action is underpinned by its domestic 2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework.

- The EU has been working towards rules-based energy governance worldwide. The EU has been building strategic alliances and intensifying dialogue and coordination with bilateral partners and international organisations, with the aim of joining forces, exploiting possible synergies and increasing complementarity and leverage. The EU furthermore continues to invest in clean energy technologies and cooperates with key partners to promote policies and programs that advance them, notably in the frame of the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM). In June 2016, the EU joined the Mission Innovation Initiative which recognises the global importance of increasing research and development investments in clean energy technologies.

- The EU has a leading role within the Energy Community, an international organisation which aims to integrate neighbouring countries into the EU's internal energy market and thus improve cross-border energy security based on solidarity and trust.

- The EU development cooperation policy: the Agenda for Change pays particular attention to the energy sector as a key driver of inclusive sustainable growth with the aim to improve access to affordable and sustainable energy, enhance energy efficiency and increase the use of renewable energy sources. In the framework of the global initiative Sustainable Energy for All, the EU has committed to helping developing countries provide access to sustainable energy services to 500 million people by 2030.

- The Covenant of Mayors was a great success within the EU that inspired other regions across the globe: the Covenant of Mayors was extended towards the east with the Covenant of Mayors East programme as well as towards the southern Mediterranean countries. The 'Covenant of Mayors for Sub-Saharan Africa' for energy efficiency was also launched. The Partnership Instrument is currently extending the Covenant of Mayors to other regions, such as Asia and North and South America. The new Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, bringing together the Covenant of Mayors and the Compact of Mayors, further strengthens the international dimension of this bottom-up initiative.

- In 2015 the EU launched the Global Climate Change Alliance Plus (GCCA+), a seven-year flagship programme to help the world’s poorest and most vulnerable places tackle climate change, including the energy dimension by providing financial, technical and policy support.

- Also the European Neighbourhood Policy and the EU Enlargement Policy are focusing among others on access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.

- EU funding instruments such as the European Neighbourhood Instrument, the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance, the European Development Fund, the Development Cooperation Instrument, the Partnership Instrument and the external component of Connecting Europe Facility and Horizon 2020. The EU has moreover contributed financially to the

  Global Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Fund (GEEREF)

  .

- The goal of a resilient Energy Union with an ambitious climate policy is at the core of the Commission's work to give EU consumers - households and businesses - secure, sustainable, competitive and affordable energy. The Commission's Energy Union Strategy from February 2015 sets out the way to achieve this along five interrelated dimensions: energy security, solidarity and trust; integrated European energy market; energy efficiency; decarbonising the economy; and research, innovation and competitiveness.

- For the period up to 2020, the Energy Union is complemented by the Europe 2020 Strategy with its headline targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20%, to satisfy 20% of the EU's energy demand with renewables, and to increase energy efficiency by 20% by 2020.

- The 2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework is a crucial part of the Energy Union by aiming for 2030 to achieve a greenhouse gas emissions reduction of 40%, a renewables' share of at least 27% in the EU's energy mix, and an increase of energy efficiency by at least 27% (with a view to 30%). With this framework, the Energy Union will also ensure in the future secure, sustainable, competitive and affordable energy. At least 20% of the EU budget will be spent on climate action by 2020.

- Progress towards these targets is ensured and monitored through the implementation of the Energy Union and its related legislation, as well as the

  European Semester

  , the EU's yearly cycle of economic and budgetary coordination.

- Several supporting initiatives are taken, such as the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, integrating mitigation, adaptation and access to secure, sustainable and affordable energy at local and regional level. The Integrated Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan) adopted last year, brings European countries, industrial and research stakeholders and the Commission together, to work on identifying and implementing common research and innovation objectives and actions to realise the decarbonisation of the EU energy system in the most cost-effective way.

- The Commission is moreover working towards a concrete European pillar of social rights, which will identify a number of essential principles which will serve as a compass for upwards convergence. One of the main areas covered is access to essential services, such as energy, including electricity, gas and heating.

- Also, the EU's digital policy aims to contribute to energy efficiency, for example through its actions on and support to smart energy grids, smart metering and smart cities.

- Moreover, the generation of renewable ocean energy is one of the key maritime economic activities supported under the Blue Growth policy which aims at harnessing the economic potential of our seas and oceans in a sustainable manner.

- The Commission believes that Corporate Social Responsibility is important for the sustainability, competitiveness, and innovation of EU enterprises and the EU economy and as such supports businesses to be and to become socially responsible, inter alia through the promotion of energy efficiency and renewable energy in businesses.

- EU Cohesion Policy plays a crucial role in delivering the Energy Union. In particular, Cohesion Policy has a thematic objective dedicated to low-carbon economy, which includes measures for energy efficiency, renewable energy, research and innovation and adoption of low-carbon technologies, smart energy infrastructure and energy-efficient decarbonised transport sector. EU Cohesion Policy (2014-2020) invests EUR 29 billion in sustainable energy, including energy efficiency, renewable energy, smart energy infrastructure and low-carbon research and innovation. The access to the related European Structural and Investment Funds is conditional upon the correct implementation of relevant parts of EU energy legislation. Finally, sustainable development is a legally binding cross-cutting principle, which is mainstreamed at all stages of the implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds.

- The Common Agricultural Policy supports, through its Rural Development Programs, investments in infrastructures for generation and distribution of renewable energy (to and from the agricultural holdings) using biomass and other renewable energy sources (solar and wind power, geothermal).

- EU funding instruments such as the European Fund for Strategic Investments, the Connecting Europe Facility, Horizon 2020 (including through the European Institute of Innovation & Technology EIT), and the European Structural and Investment Funds.

8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: jobs, growth and investment; a digital single market; energy union and climate; a deeper and fairer internal market; a deeper and fairer economic and monetary union; a balanced EU-US free trade agreement; a stronger global actor

- The EU development cooperation policy: the Agenda for Change focuses on inclusive and sustainable growth for human development as one of its priorities in particular in those sectors that have stronger multiplier impact on developing countries' economies, notably sustainable agriculture and energy. EU support has been significant in supporting macroeconomic stability and growth, indirectly enabling new sustainable employment opportunities. Support to technical and vocational training as well as trade development contributed to widen employment opportunities. Employment, decent work and tackling child labour in developing countries are EU priority areas for 2014-2020 under the Global Public Good and Challenges programme. The EU promotes high standards for working conditions internationally as well as the formalisation of the informal economy. The EU supports the development of a competitive local private sector including by building local institutional and business capacity, by promoting SMEs, cooperatives, inclusive business models and social enterprises, by promoting employment for young people and women, by supporting legislative and regulatory framework reforms and their enforcement, and by facilitating access to business and financial services to foster financial inclusion, including through digital solutions. Through its budget support operations the EU promotes stability oriented macroeconomic management as a prerequisite for inclusive and sustainable economic growth and development. This includes prudent debt policies and debt management capacities, increased domestic resource mobilization, reduction of aid dependency and structural reforms to diversify partner countries' economies. The EU also supports responsible management of supply chains and responsible engagement of European companies in developing countries, including in specific sectors such as mining, logging, conflict minerals or garment.

- Also the revised European Neighbourhood Policy proposes economic development as a priority, as a means for stabilisation of the regions concerned.

- The EU Enlargement Policy will continue to focus efforts on sustainable economic development and competitiveness, growth and jobs.

- The External Investment Plan aims to increase investment in Africa and the EU's neighbourhood by unlocking private resources, stepping up technical assistance and improving the investment climate in order to promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth in these partner countries. The proposed European Fund for Sustainable Development lies at the core of the External Investment Plan and is expected to trigger additional public and private investment volumes, mobilising total investments of up to EUR 44 billion based on EUR 3.35 billion contribution from the EU budget and the European Development Fund, or even EUR 88 billion if Member States and other partners match the EU contribution.

- The EU is at the forefront of using its trade and investment policy to support inclusive growth and sustainable development in developing countries. Key instruments in this regard are the Everything But Arms initiative, the GSP+ arrangement and the inclusion of trade and sustainable development chapters in the EU new generation trade and investment agreements, to promote high levels of environmental and labour protection. The Trade for All Strategy further strengthens the link between trade and sustainable development.

- EU humanitarian aid provides support and expertise to international organisations to help refugees' and displaced peoples' host governments to put in place legislation that gives them access to the formal labour market, decent work standards and protecting them from labour exploitation. It also focuses on child protection through linking education and protection, and strengthening crisis affected childrens' resilience through vocational training.

- The EU has been active in the G20 with regard to strengthening the international economic policy coordination process as well as fostering full and timely implementation of the agreed G20 growth strategies.

-The EU has been contributing to the G7 Vision Zero Fund to promote decent work and healthy workplaces in the global supply chains in developing countries, focusing mainly on the garment sector.

- Cooperation with the International Labour Organisation with special focus on decent work and social protection.

- EU funding instruments such as the proposed European Fund for Sustainable Development, the European Neighbourhood Instrument, the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance, the European Development Fund, the Development Cooperation Instrument, the Partnership Instrument and the Humanitarian Aid funding instrument.

- The EU ensures that EU Member States coordinate their economic, social and employment policies at EU level.

- The European Commission has launched in 2015 an

  Investment Plan for Europe

  to unlock over EUR 315 billion of investment over three years and deliver a powerful and targeted boost to economic sectors that create jobs and raise growth. The Investment Plan for Europe has three objectives: removing obstacles to investment by deepening the single market, providing visibility and technical assistance to investment projects and making smarter use of new and existing financial resources. The EU Capital Markets Union aims to tackle investment shortages head-on by increasing and diversifying the funding sources for Europe’s businesses and long-term projects and through fostering sustainable investment.

- The Europe 2020 Strategy and more specifically the headline targets to employ 75% of the 20-64 year-olds and to fighting poverty and social exclusion. Progress towards these Europe 2020 targets is encouraged and monitored through the

  European Semester

  , the EU's yearly cycle of economic and budgetary coordination.

- With its circular economy package, the EU aims to address economic and environmental concerns by maximizing efficiency in the use of resources, covering the whole value chain and through innovation, thereby enabling the development of new markets and business models. As such it contributes to sustainable economic growth.

- The Commission is committed to unleash the full potential of the Single Market through the implementation of its Single Market Strategy and make it the launchpad for Europe to thrive in the global economy.

- In line with the principle of subsidiarity, Member States are primarily competent for the definition of their employment and social policy, while the EU supports and complement the activities of the Member States, often by agreeing on minimum standards at the EU level. The EU has put measures in place to ensure decent working conditions, going from legislation on health and safety at work, working conditions, information and consultation of workers to legislation on tackling discrimination at work.

- The Commission is moreover working towards a concrete European pillar of social rights, which will identify a number of essential principles which will serve as a compass for upwards convergence as regards social and labour market performances, focusing on the needs and challenges in the field of employment and social policies. Main areas covered are equal opportunities and access to the labour market, fair working conditions, adequate and sustainable social protection and promoting social dialogue, with a view to establishing an adequate and reliable balance of rights and obligations between workers and employers.

- The EU has contributed to the elaboration of the Youth Guarantee under which Member States should ensure that, within four months of leaving school or losing a job, young people under 25 can either find a good-quality job suited to their education, skills and experience; or acquire the education, skills and experience required to find a job in the future through an apprenticeship, traineeship or continued education. The EU is moreover topping-up national spending on these schemes through the European Social Fund and the Youth Employment Initiative.

- Competitiveness is a core priority of the Energy Union. The third internal energy market package, guidelines for Trans-European energy infrastructure, the renewable and energy efficiency legislation and the new governance of the Energy Union, as well as the revision of the EU Emission Trading System (ETS) and the proposal for setting Member States' targets for the sectors outside the Emission Trading System (ETS) provide the framework for the necessary investments to materialise in the coming years.

- The 7th Environment Action Programme sets the vision that by 2050, we live well, within the planet’s ecological limits. It confirms that our prosperity and healthy environment stem from an innovative, circular economy where nothing is wasted and where natural resources are managed sustainably, and biodiversity is protected, valued and restored in ways that enhance our society’s resilience.

- With its digital single market strategy, the EU aims to maximise the growth potential of our European Digital Economy.

- As the EU's first investment arm, Cohesion Policy addresses a wide range of EU economic and social objectives. EU Cohesion Policy has thematic objectives dedicated to SME support, sustainable and quality, labour mobility and vocational training and lifelong learning. EU Cohesion Policy for the 2014-2020 period is moreover targeted towards achieving smart, sustainable and inclusive growth by providing investments of about EUR 350 billion and a number of enabling conditions, such as technical assistance, capacity building, and territorial cooperation. Finally, sustainable development is a legally binding cross-cutting principle, which is mainstreamed at all stages of the implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds.

- The EU is working to strengthen the ecosystem of social economy enterprises and actors in the EU, bringing an alternative way of doing business, for example by focusing on the social impact for the common good.

- The Commission believes that Corporate Social Responsibility is important for the sustainability, competitiveness, and innovation of EU enterprises and the EU economy and as such supports businesses to be and to become socially responsible, for example with regard to working conditions.

- The Common Agricultural policy supports jobs and growth in the agricultural sector and the rural economy and it fosters the economic vitality of rural areas. Specific measures are in place to assist young farmers, for example for set-up and investments and through direct payments.

- The Common Fisheries Policy supports a fair standard of living for fishing communities, sustainable fisheries and aquaculture and a dynamic fisheries industry.

- Blue Growth is the long term strategy to support sustainable growth in the marine and maritime sectors as a whole. Seas and oceans are drivers for the European economy and have great potential for innovation and growth. The EU singles out several particular industries for special attention: ocean energy, aquaculture, blue biotech, deep sea mining and coastal tourism.

- The EU is contributing to promoting sustainable tourism and promotes local culture and tourism products, such as emerging, non-traditional tourism destinations (European Destinations of Excellence) or supports transnational projects on sustainable tourism products.

- EU funding instruments such as the European Fund for Strategic Investments, the European Structural and Investment Funds, Horizon 2020, the

  Employment and Social Innovation programme

  , the Programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (COSME), the Emergency Support Instrument, the Connecting Europe Facility and the Creative Europe Programme.

9. Build resilient infrastruc-ture, promote inclusive and sustainable industriali-zation and foster innovation

The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: jobs, growth and investment; a digital single market; energy union and climate; a deeper and fairer internal market; a stronger global actor

- The EU development cooperation policy: the Agenda for Change and the EU policy on the role of the private sector support leveraging private sector activity and resources with a view to fostering sustainable investment, economic diversification, local value added and industrialization. This includes up-front grant funding and risk-sharing mechanisms to catalyse public-private partnerships and private investment. Blending, which combines EU grants with loans or equity from other public and private financiers, is increasingly supportive of actions on infrastructure which have a multiplier effect on sustainable development in partner countries. The EU moreover promotes industrial policies and the development of national innovation systems. On sustainable industrialisation, EU actions with partner countries are geared towards inclusive and sustainable growth and economic integration, building on partner countries' comparative advantages in the manufacturing or services sectors, including through aid for trade. The EU also promotes the development of sustainable global, regional and local value chains in developing countries. Other targets on access to financial services and technology are consistent with existing EU policy, including its involvement in initiatives such as the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion.

-The European Neighbourhood Policy and the EU Enlargement Policy support this sustainable development goal by providing technical assistance and investments on agreed network priorities and technical assistance through blending facilities, bilateral assistance programmes and regional initiatives. For example, in the European Neighbourhood Policy the EU has contributed to the regional transport action plan for the Mediterranean region (2014-2020) and to a transport dialogue within the Eastern partnership aimed at extending the physical infrastructure of the Trans-European Transport networks and their governance. Those Trans-European Transport networks have already been extended to the Western Balkans.

- The External Investment Plan aims to increase investment in Africa and the EU's neighbourhood by unlocking private resources, stepping up technical assistance and improving the investment climate in order to promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth in these partner countries. The proposed European Fund for Sustainable Development lies at the core of the External Investment Plan and is expected to trigger additional public and private investment volumes, mobilising total investments of up to EUR 44 billion based on EUR 3.35 billion contribution from the EU budget and the European Development Fund, or even EUR 88 billion if Member States and other partners match the EU contribution. As such it can provide an important contribution to the promotion of resilient infrastructure, inclusive and sustainable industrialization and innovation in Africa and Neighbourhood countries.

- EU humanitarian aid places resilience as its central objective by among others supporting development of disaster and climate resilient infrastructure in different contexts around the globe (e.g. water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), Settlements and Shelter). It supports multi-stakeholder collaborations, including with the private sector and academia, to spur effective and demand-driven humanitarian innovation. These priorities are also underlined in the Action Plan on the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.

- EU funding instruments such as the proposed European Fund for Sustainable Development, European Neighbourhood Instrument (in particular through its Neighbourhood Investment Facility), the European Development Fund, the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance, the Development Cooperation Instrument, the external dimension of the Connecting Europe Facility and Horizon 2020, the Partnership Instrument and the Humanitarian Aid funding instrument.

- The EU’s 

  Trans-European Networks

    policy links regional and national infrastructure to create coherent European infrastructure systems. This includes both interconnection and interoperability, mainly for 

  transport

   and 

  energy

  , but also Information and Communications Technology (ICT). There are guidelines in place to make sure that all supported infrastructure projects are climate and disaster resilient. Also the Energy Union contributes to the build-up of infrastructure. The Common Agricultural Policy, through its Rural Development Programs, supports the creation, improvement and expansion of broadband infrastructures and IT applications.

- The European Programme for Critical Infrastructure Protection sets the overall framework for activities aimed at improving the protection of critical infrastructure in Europe - across all EU States and in all relevant sectors of economic activity. The programme has also synergies with actions under the Union Civil Protection Mechanism.

- The EU is working towards a smart, innovative and clean industry of the future, supporting the modernisation of Europe’s industrial base across all industrial sectors. It does so by providing financing, including targeted financing to SMEs (for example through the Investment Plan for Europe, European Structural and Investment Funds, COSME, Horizon 2020, including the European Institute of Innovation & Technology EIT), best regulatory environment (Single Market Strategy, innovative schemes encouraging flexible and innovation friendly legislation). Also, the EU aims to reap the full benefits of the digital single market by promoting the digitisation of the European industry and through its access and connectivity policies. Also the Common Agricultural Policy supports the creation, improvement and expansion of broadband infrastructures and IT applications in rural areas.

- The EU is promoting eco-innovation and

  sustainability

  objectives for the European economy through its circular economy package, through its 2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework which strives for a competitive low-carbon and climate-resilient economy, through its actions to stimulate the uptake of advanced (digital and key enabling) technologies and business models for a cleaner industry and through the promotion of

  corporate social responsibility

  in the EU by encouraging enterprises to adhere to international guidelines and principles. The EU also supports small cultural and creative enterprises to access financial services and integrate into value chains and markets.

- The EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change identifies resilient infrastructure as a priority action area under the strategic objective of mainstreaming adaptation measures as a way to climate proof EU action. Guidelines for project developers on climate proof investments as well as a guide for addressing climate change adaptation in standards (with CEN-CENELEC) have been developed.

- The Europe 2020 Strategy and more specifically the headline target to invest at least 3% of the EU's GDP in R&D. Progress towards this Europe 2020 target is encouraged and monitored through the

  European Semester

  , the EU's yearly cycle of economic and budgetary coordination. Horizon 2020 is the financial instrument implementing the

  Innovation Union

  , a

  Europe 2020

  flagship initiative aimed at securing Europe's global competitiveness. Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme ever with EUR 77 billion of funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020) – in addition to the private investment that this money will attract. For example, Horizon 2020 finances research and innovation for sustainable industrialisation through the Bio-Based Industries Joint Technology Initiative, a public-private partnership which will support biorefineries and innovative bio-processing technologies.

- As the EU's first investment arm, EU Cohesion Policy has specific thematic objectives dedicated to research and innovation, ICT, transport infrastructure, climate resilience and risk prevention and management, and smart energy systems. EU Cohesion Policy (2014-2020) invests EUR 41 billion in innovation, EUR 33 billion for the competitiveness of SMEs and EUR 70 billion for better and more sustainable transport, including a shift towards low-carbon systems, and EUR 3 billion in smart energy grids. The funding opportunities for innovation are targeted at smart specialisation priorities, based on the local growth opportunities and needs and together with industry and researchers. In the area of transport and energy infrastructures, as a funding pre-condition, the investments are based on comprehensive plans or frameworks. Finally, sustainable development is a legally binding cross-cutting principle, which is mainstreamed at all stages of the implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds.

- EU funding instruments such as the European Fund for Strategic Investments, the European Structural and Investment Funds, Horizon 2020 (including through the European Institute of Innovation & Technology EIT),  the Connecting Europe Facility, the Civil protection instrument, the Emergency Support Instrument and the Cultural and Creative Sector Guarantee Facility.

10. Reduce inequality within and among countries

The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: jobs, growth and investment; a deeper and fairer internal market; a deeper and fairer economic and monetary union; justice and fundamental rights; migration; a stronger global actor; democratic change

- The EU development cooperation policy, the European Neighbourhood Policy and the EU Enlargement Policy aim to reduce inequality within the countries concerned by promoting respectively inclusive growth for human development and economic development for stabilisation. As such it also aims to bridge the gap with other more developed countries. More specifically, development cooperation focuses on growth patterns that lead to structural transformation and that are conducive to more productive employment, higher incomes and decent work for all, which are central for addressing income inequalities. Moreover, EU action - for example through its budget support dialogue - centres on pro-poor fiscal policies, strengthened governance, fair and transparent tax systems, public sector management, domestic resource mobilisation and adequate and sustainable social protection, all of which contribute to tackling inequalities. The EU support also takes a comprehensive approach to human development which involves non-discriminatory access to resources and a rights-based approach, developing social protection and reducing inequality of opportunity, having regard to most vulnerable and disadvantaged. Financing instruments integrate the Agenda for Change commitment including continued support for social inclusion and human development through at least 20% of EU aid.

- EU trade and investment policy aims to make trade and investment contribute to inclusive growth and sustainable development within countries, notably by maximising the potential of trade preferences, trade agreements and investment agreements for job creation, high levels of labour protection and investment generation in partner countries, notably developing ones. At the same time, the EU aims to minimise any negative impact of other trade agreements on least developed countries and other countries most in need.

- One essential aspect of the common EU approach to migration is to build dialogue and partnerships with countries of origin and transit, based on solidarity and shared responsibility. To this end new results-oriented Partnership Frameworks with third countries will be developed where the EU and its Member States will act in a coordinated manner according to the situation and needs of each partner country, depending on whether they are a country of origin, country of transit or a country hosting many migrants. At the same time, the global Approach to migration and mobility provides the overarching framework for the EU external migration policy. Focused and continued attention will be needed to support partner countries to maximise the contribution of well managed migration to development including through the reduction of remittance transfer costs from the EU.

- The EU provides needs-based humanitarian assistance to the people hit by man-made and natural disasters with particular attention to the most vulnerable, which often include persons with disabilities, women, children and elderly. As such it contributes to reduce inequalities within and among countries. The Action Plan for Resilience in Crisis Prone Countries 2013-2020 calls for "Equity - a people-centred approach", to bring sustainable benefits to the most vulnerable populations and households, taking into account the diversity of needs of women, children, men and the elderly. The Action Plan for the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015 - 2030 implementation advocates for inclusivity and gives a special focus on vulnerable groups.

- In its international relations the EU is also committed to reducing inequalities. It is for example committed to improve regulation and monitoring on global financial markets and institutions. Also, in order to reduce inequalities among countries, including those related to representation and migration, the EU is committed to enhancing voice and representation of developing countries in International Financial Institutions and reducing remittance costs, in the G20 and other international fora.

- Cooperation with OECD as regards income inequalities (the OECD's flagship report on income inequalities launched jointly with the European Commission in May 2015).

- When it comes to leaving no one behind, the EU encourages financial flows, including foreign direct investment, to states where the need is greatest, and has made a collective commitment to allocate 0.20% of Gross National Income (GNI) as Official Development Assistance (ODA) to the least developed countries by 2030.

- EU funding instruments such as the European Neighbourhood Instrument, European Development Fund, the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance, the Development Cooperation Instrument, the Civil Protection Mechanism, the Partnership Instrument and the Humanitarian Aid funding instrument.

- The EU supports and complements the Member States' policies in the fields of social inclusion and social protection.

- In the framework of the European Semester the Commission provides detailed annual analyses of EU Member States budgetary and economic reform plans and provides Member States with country-specific recommendations for the next 12-18 months. The European Semester recommendations aim at structural reforms that can enhance growth, jobs and investment, and thereby also social inclusiveness. This covers e.g. fiscal and structural reform (including social policies), which both can contribute to reducing inequality. These recommendations also contribute to the objectives of the EU's long-term strategy for jobs and growth, the Europe 2020 Strategy, which is implemented and monitored in the context of the European Semester. Many decisions however remain a prerogative of the Member States, for example regarding the progressivity of tax systems and the design of the welfare systems.

- The EU is working on the implementation of a new agenda for migration, as the EU’s external borders have increasingly been the scene of human tragedies to which the EU, together with its Member States, must take action. The EU aims at taking immediate action to prevent further losses of migrants’ lives. In the medium to longer term the EU is focusing on reducing the incentives for irregular migration, saving lives and securing the external borders, strengthening the common asylum policy and developing a new policy on legal migration. The European Commission’s Knowledge Centre for Migration and Demography shall underpin these policy developments and decisions with relevant knowledge and evidence-based analysis.

- The proposed European Solidarity Corps will enable young people across the EU to volunteer their help where it is needed most, for example related to the reception and integration of refugees.

- The EU has put in place a framework to ensure equal opportunities and to tackle discrimination based on grounds of racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or

  sexual orientation

  and

  sex

  . Examples are the EU laws on racial Equality (implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin in many areas of social life) and on Employment Equality (establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation). The EU for example also has a strategy in place to reduce health inequalities in the EU and promote solidarity in health, and has rules in place on the fight against racism and xenophobia.

- The Commission is moreover working towards a concrete European pillar of social rights, which will identify a number of essential principles which will serve as a compass for upwards convergence as regards social and labour market performances, thereby contributing to reducing inequalities.

- Also the New Skills Agenda will contribute to reducing inequalities as it aims at ensuring that people in Europe have the skills they need to participate in society and be active in the labour market.

- The EU has taken a number of initiatives to create a safer and sounder financial sector through its banking union, such as stronger prudential requirements for banks, improved depositor protection and rules for managing failing banks. Moreover a Single Supervisory Mechanism and a Single Resolution Mechanism for banks was established.

- EU cohesion policy is about reducing disparities between the various regions and the catching-up of the least-favoured regions and about promoting economic, social and territorial cohesion. It does so by investing in smart, sustainable and inclusive growth in all EU regions. Cohesion policy has a thematic objective especially dedicated to promoting social inclusion, combatting poverty and any discrimination to which it contributes in particular by building non-segregated facilities and encouraging community-based services. Finally, sustainable development is a legally binding cross-cutting principle, which is mainstreamed at all stages of the implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds.

- The EU civil protection policy considers the needs of people with disabilities among the priorities of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism activities (e.g. civil protection exercises and preparedness projects), thereby fostering disability-inclusive disaster management.

- EU funding instruments such as the European Structural and Investment Funds, the Employment and Social Innovation programme, the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, the Civil Protection Mechanism, the Emergency Support Instrument and the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme.

11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: jobs, growth and investment; a digital single market; energy and climate; a stronger global actor

- The EU development cooperation policy, the EU neighborhood policy and the EU Enlargement Policy aim to directly or indirectly improve living conditions in cities. For example EU development cooperation policy aid to urban and peri-urban areas focuses in particular on support to slum upgrading, access to water and sanitation, urban mobility, energy and affordable housing, land access, the essential role of culture and cultural heritage and availability of public space for all, as well as energy efficiency and disaster prevention and preparedness. The EU promotes sustainable and climate resilient urbanisation as a basic tool to enhance more effective development at local level and is committed to work on social inclusion and gender issues in informal settlements.

- The EU is also actively participating in international fora, for example in "Habitat III”, a major global summit, formally known as the

  United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development

  . It has helped developing the Mediterranean and Eastern components of the Covenant of Mayors (see the text linked to sustainable development goal n°7), and has contributed to the Union for the Mediterranean Ministerial on Sustainable Urban Development (2011).

- In June 2016, the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy and the Compact of Mayors joined efforts to create a new single global initiative, the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, resulting in the largest global coalition of cities committed to climate leadership. Built upon a unique multi-level governance model, it brings together more than 7,100 cities from 119 countries and six continents, representing more than 600 million inhabitants, over 8% of the world’s population.

- The urban crises are one of the EU humanitarian assistance programmes' priorities. EU humanitarian aid supports methodologies for urban approaches to humanitarian response as well as different initiatives working on urban humanitarian crises. The Action Plan for the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015 - 2030 implementation includes a strong focus on building the urban resilience to disasters.

- Reinforcing cooperation on cultural heritage is one of the three main objectives of the EU strategic approach to international cultural relations. Actions in this field include research on cultural heritage, initiatives and projects aimed at combating illicit trafficking of cultural goods and protection of cultural heritage internationally in cooperation with UNESCO.

- EU funding instruments such as the European Development Fund, the European Neighbourhood Instrument, the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, the Development Cooperation Instrument, the Partnership Instrument, the Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace, the Humanitarian Aid funding instrument and the external component of Horizon 2020.

- Cities are key actors for the sustainable development of the European Union. In the period up to 2020 the urban dimension is put at the very heart of EU Cohesion Policy. An amount of funds is earmarked for integrated projects in cities. Linked to this the Urban Agenda for the EU was adopted in 2016 so that urban areas will benefit from an innovative collaborative approach to developing and implementing policies with a local focus but a significant European dimension. In the funding period 2014 – 2020 for example, more than EUR 100 billion from the European Regional Development Fund will be invested in cities to create better opportunities for sustainable urban mobility, energy efficiency, urban renewal, research and innovation capacity and economic and social regeneration of deprived communities. Finally, sustainable development is a legally binding cross-cutting principle, which is mainstreamed at all stages of the implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds.

- The 7th Environment Action Programme, the agreed framework for EU environment policy until 2020, has as a horizontal priority objective to make the Union's cities more sustainable. Many of the EU's policies and legislation are vital for sustainable urban development such as the Clean Air Package, Air Quality and Noise Legislation, the Circular Economy Package, legislation on the environmental assessment of projects and plans, the EU's Biodiversity and Green Infrastructure Strategies, Drinking Water and Urban Wastewater Treatment legislation and the framework on energy performance of building.

- Urban areas concentrate most of the environmental challenges facing our society but also bring together commitment and innovation to resolve them. The European Green Capital Award and the Green Leaf Award are EU initiatives to bring such commitment into the centre stage. Also, the efforts of cities to improve the accessibility for persons with disabilities and older people are being recognized through the annual Access City Award.

- Innovation in urban areas is fostered through EU research and innovation actions, for instance Horizon 2020 support to the transition to sustainable cities through nature-based solutions and cultural heritage-led regeneration.

- The EU policy on smart cities and more specifically the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities brings together cities, industry and citizens to improve urban life through more sustainable integrated solutions.

- The Energy Union aims to provide the necessary sustainable, save and resilient energy for our cities. The Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy supports cities in addressing climate resilience, together with taking ambitious action on climate change mitigation and access to safe, clean and affordable energy. New signatories of the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with the EU's targets for 2030 and to adopt an integrated approach to tackling mitigation and adaptation to climate change.

- The EU promotes sustainable urban mobility planning in cities in various ways; it has for example established guidelines and provides funding for related projects.

- European cultural heritage benefits from a range of EU policies, programmes and funding. The recently agreed designation of 2018 as European Year for Cultural Heritage will help the EU and its Member States strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard cultural heritage. The protection of cultural heritage against all kinds of natural and man-made disasters occurring inside or outside the Union is also covered by the Union Civil Protection Mechanism. This is further underlined in the Action Plan for the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction implementation 2015 – 2030 that advocates for strengthened urban resilience to disasters.

- The EU is working to strengthen the ecosystem of social economy enterprises and actors in the EU, most of them bringing social values in the local communities, thereby contributing to resilience and more sustainability in the medium and long run.

- EU funding instruments such as the European Fund for Strategic Investments, the European Structural and Investment Funds, Horizon 2020, the Programme for the Environment and Climate Action (LIFE), the Connecting Europe Facility and the Civil Protection Mechanism.

12. Ensure sustainable consump-tion and production patterns

The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: jobs, growth and investment; a digital single market; energy union and climate; a stronger global actor

- The EU development cooperation policy and the European Neighbourhood Policy are investing in projects which contribute to sustainable consumption and production patterns in third countries. The EU for example promotes responsible supply chains and responsible business practices of European companies in developing countries. The EU also promotes the transition to an inclusive green economy that generates growth and creates decent jobs in partner countries, notably through the Switch to Green initiative that supports the adoption of sustainable consumption and production practices by the private sector and the development of enabling policy frameworks. It builds on the SWITCH regional programmes in Asia, the Mediterranean and Africa which help interested consumers, businesses and supporting associations switch to a more sustainable paradigm. Concrete initiatives also include the Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE) and the Green Economy Coalition, funded by the EU through the Global Public Goods and Challenges Programme. Moreover, the EU supports through a range of activities the UN 10-Year Framework of Programmes (10YFP) on sustainable consumption and production patterns, which provides a global framework of action to enhance international cooperation to accelerate the shift towards sustainable consumption and production in both developed and developing countries. The EU also supports the sound management of waste and chemicals and the implementation of the related Multilateral Environmental Agreements by developing countries.

- As part of its trade policy, including through free trade agreements and preferential trade schemes, the EU pursues sustainable development, promoting inclusive growth, responsible management of supply chains, fair and ethical trade schemes, human rights and good governance. This dimension has been further strengthened by the Trade for All Strategy. Voluntary Partnership Agreements on tropical timber with major producer countries are a concrete example of ensuring the sustainability of supply chains.

- The EU rules to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing ensure that only marine fisheries products validated as legal by the competent flag state or exporting state can be imported to or exported from the EU.

- The EU furthermore is Party to a range of international agreements that are vital for achieving this sustainable development goal, including the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions and engages in the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM).

- EU funding instruments such as the European Neighbourhood Instrument, European Development Fund, the Development Cooperation Instrument, the Partnership Instrument and the external component of Horizon 2020.

- The Energy Union contributes to the sustainable use of our natural resources and the protection of our environment through a manifold of initiatives and legal acts (see above under sustainable development goal n°7). For example, the Ecodesign legislation is a tool to not only save energy but also shape the durability, reparability, resource efficiency, reusability and recyclability of products. The Energy Label guides consumers towards the most efficient and sustainable products.

- The 7th Environment Action programme, the agreed framework for EU environment policy until 2020, has as a key objective to turn the Union into a resource-efficient, green, and competitive low-carbon economy. Another key objective is to safeguard EU citizens from environment-related pressures and risks to health and wellbeing. For example, the EU Forest Strategy has as one of its key principles global forest responsibility, promoting sustainable production and consumption of forest products.

- Building on existing EU policies and legislation, the Circular Economy Package establishes a programme of action with measures covering the whole cycle from production and consumption to waste management. The Package includes commitments on ecodesign, waste prevention and reuse, ambitious quantitative targets on increasing recycling and reducing landfilling, obligations to improve the separate collection of waste, as well as the promotion of efficient use of bio-based resources. It also fosters methodological developments for monitoring food waste volumes and improvements in food products date marking in order to minimise food waste all along the value chain, from production to distribution, storage and consumption. In order to fight food losses and food waste and maximise the contribution of all actors, the Commission has set up the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste.

- The EU public procurement framework promotes social inclusion and ensures the compliance of tender awards with social and labour legislation and also promotes public sector entities to purchase goods and services that have a lower impact on the environment, in particular through Green Public Procurement.

- The EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) is a premium management instrument developed by the European Commission for companies and other organisations to evaluate, report, and improve their environmental performance. EMAS is open to every type of organisation eager to improve its environmental performance. It spans all economic and service sectors and is applicable worldwide.

- The EU Ecolabel helps consumers to identify products and services that have a reduced environmental impact throughout their life cycle, from the extraction of raw material through to production, use and disposal. Recognised throughout Europe, EU Ecolabel is a voluntary label promoting environmental excellence.

- The EU Chemicals Policy covers regulation on persistent organic pollutants; trade in hazardous chemicals; fluorinated gases; and hazardous waste. The "REACH" framework aims to improve the protection of human health and the environment from the risks that can be posed by chemicals, while enhancing the competitiveness of the EU chemicals industry.

- Through its policy on digitizing the European industry the EU also promotes the development of sustainable consumption and production patterns, for example through large scale pilots on the Internet of Things.

- The EU promotes corporate social responsibility in the EU and encourages enterprises to adhere to international guidelines and principles. Corporate Social Responsibility should be company led, and public authorities can play a supporting role through a smart mix of voluntary policy measures and, where necessary, complementary regulation. For example, large companies and groups are now obliged to disclose information on policies, risks and results as regards environmental matters, social and employee-related aspects.

- One of the common agricultural policy's main objectives is to provide a stable, sustainably produced supply of safe food at affordable prices for consumers. This includes for examples an EU framework on organic farming, and the integration of environmental concerns, such as biodiversity, water management and use and climate change, into the Common Agricultural Policy. The agricultural policy is committed to sustainable use of natural resources and the environmentally-sound management of waste, also for food losses.

- Similarly, the Common Fisheries Policy aims to ensure that fishing and aquaculture are environmentally, economically and socially sustainable and that they provide a source of healthy food for EU citizens. It aims at eliminating discards which is a considerable contribution towards the reduction of food waste. A central element of the Common Fisheries Policy is that it aims to guarantee that only legal fishery products enter the European market through the EU's policy against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and the use of catch documentation scheme.

- EU Cohesion Policy invests in the protection of the environment and resource efficiency, research and innovation, the competitiveness of SMEs and the low-carbon economy, totalling more than EUR 150 billion for 2014-2020. These investments can be used to promote sustainable consumption and production, including by supporting energy and resource efficiency in SMEs and innovation in these areas. For example, cohesion policy has a specific investment priority on waste management, where it supports Member States and regions and so boosts progress on the circular economy. There is also a funding pre-condition (i.e. ex-ante conditionality) related to the correct implementation of EU waste legislation, which ensures that the necessary conditions are in place for effective and efficient EU investments. Finally, sustainable development is a legally binding cross-cutting principle, which is mainstreamed at all stages of the implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds.

- EU funding instruments such as the European Structural and Investment Funds, Horizon 2020 (including through the European Institute of Innovation & Technology EIT) and the Programme for the Environment and Climate Action (LIFE).

13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: energy union and climate; a stronger global actor

- The EU has been at the forefront of international efforts towards the Paris global climate agreement and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. It will implement the Paris agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and is committed to implement the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015 - 2030.

- The EU is stepping up its international climate diplomacy to maintain the political momentum and support other countries in the implementation of the Paris Agreement and their climate plans. In this respect, the EU remains committed to scaling up the mobilisation of international climate finance. The EU will contribute globally to reaching the headline targets agreed in Paris. The EU has contributed to reach a successful agreement in the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) on a global market-based measure for international aviation emissions. It has also focused its diplomatic outreach and attention to negotiations in the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) where an agreement to include hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) within its ambit was achieved on 15 October 2016.

- The EU is with its trade policy playing a key role in taking forward negotiations for an environmental goods agreement with 16 other major WTO members. The aim is to facilitate trade in vital green technologies like renewable energy generation, waste management and air pollution control and contribute to combatting climate change and protecting the environment. The EU is also including the fight against climate change in the trade and sustainable development chapters it includes in its trade and investment agreements and their implementation.

- In 2015 the EU launched the Global Climate Change Alliance Plus (GCCA+), a seven-year thematic flagship programme to help the world’s poorest and most vulnerable places to facilitate the transition to a climate resilient low-carbon future.

- The EU places disaster and climate resilience as a central objective in its humanitarian assistance. The EU Resilience Marker is used in all humanitarian projects to define ways to reduce disaster risks and to strengthen people's coping capacities to disasters and crises. The Action Plan for Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015 – 2030 includes a strong focus on climate change adaptation, linking it to disaster risk reduction strategies and their coherent implementation in EU partner countries.

- The energy sector has a direct link to the climate change challenge. Based on its 2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework, the EU works with international partners to implement efficient sustainable energy policies that meet the greenhouse gas emission reduction objectives by increasing energy production from low carbon energy resources, in particular renewables while improving energy efficiency, managing energy demand, increasing the stability and transparency of energy markets, developing and transferring clean energy technologies and intelligent solutions. Furthermore, the EU cooperates with developing countries in leapfrogging towards sustainable and modern energy services for all or decarbonising their energy mix to decouple economic growth from an increase in harmful emissions.

- Combatting climate change and poverty eradication are recognised as inherently linked, and supporting the poorest and the most vulnerable countries is a priority. The EU’s development cooperation policy as well as other policies and financial instruments supporting the European Union external actions will contribute to achieving the 20% overall commitment to climate relevant actions for the EU spending in the 2014-2020 period. A number of new facilities and innovative mechanisms have been designed to leverage more investments.

- EU funding instruments such as the European Neighbourhood Instrument, the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, the European Development Fund, the Development Cooperation Instrument, the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance, the Partnership Instrument, the Humanitarian Aid funding instrument and the external component of Horizon 2020.

- The Energy Union supports the shift towards a resource-efficient, low-carbon economy to achieve sustainable growth through their legal frameworks and related initiatives (see above under sustainable development goal n°7). A legislative framework is put into place to support these policies. Most importantly, within its Energy Union Europe has set up a 2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework which sets three key targets for the year 2030: At least 40% cuts in greenhouse gas emissions (from 1990 levels), at least 27% share for renewable energy and at least 27% improvement in energy efficiency.

- The fight against climate change and climate change adaptation is mainstreamed into many policy areas.

- The Europe 2020 Strategy and more specifically the headline targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions 20% compared to 1990 (or even 30% if the conditions are right), to ensure 20% energy from renewables and to ensure a 20% increase in energy efficiency. Progress towards these Europe 2020 targets is encouraged and monitored through the

  European Semester

  , the EU's yearly cycle of economic and budgetary coordination.

- There is an

  EU Emissions Trading System

  (ETS) which is the EU's key tool for cutting greenhouse gas emissions from large-scale facilities in the power and industry sectors, as well as the aviation sector. The Commission has already made a proposal for a revision of the Emissions Trading System for the period after 2020 to ensure the EU meets the 2030 greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. National emission reduction targets cover the sectors not in the emission trading system (such as building, agriculture, waste, transport, excluding aviation). They exist up to 2020 and the Commission recently adopted a proposal for targets up to 2030, including how to integrate the land use sector into the EU 2030 Climate and Energy Framework. These proposals will ensure the EU is on track to reduce greenhouse gas emissions domestically by at least 40% by 2030.

- Other examples are the binding energy efficiency and renewable energy measures in place supported by numerous sectoral policies that reduce emissions. These include regulations improving the efficiency of appliances and other tools, standards improving CO2 efficiency of cars, and policies improving the energy performance of buildings.

- The Circular Economy Package's full implementation will direct resources and efforts in the direction of technologies and business models that will be more resource and energy efficient thus providing an important contribution to mitigation of GHG emissions.

- The Transport White Paper sets out the general objective for the EU of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector by 60% by 2050. An example of action towards this objective is a target on the reduction of the greenhouse gas intensity of fuels.

- The EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change provides a framework and mechanisms to improve the preparedness of the EU for current and future impacts of climate change, thus contributing to a more climate-resilient. It is structured around three strategic objectives: promoting action by Member States; better informed decision making; and "climate-proofing" EU action by mainstreaming adaptation measures into EU policies and programmes and promoting adaptation in key vulnerable sectors.

- In addition, promoting integrating Green Infrastructure into related plans and programmes can help restore ecological connectivity, enhance ecosystem resilience and thereby ensure the continued provision of ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration, and climate adaptation.

- The EU Floods legislation establishes a framework for the assessment and management of flood risks. Climate change should be considered by EU Member States when undertaking preliminary flood risk assessments and when establishing flood risk management plans.

- The EU commits to implement the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015 - 2030. The EU Action Plan for Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction implementation includes a strong focus on climate change adaptation, linking it to disaster risk reduction, and fostering a strengthened coherence between climate change adaptation strategies and risk management plans at national level in EU.

-The EU Civil Protection Mechanism includes a general policy framework for Union actions on disaster risk prevention, aimed at achieving a higher level of protection and resilience against disasters by preventing or reducing their effects and by fostering a culture of prevention, including due consideration of the likely impacts of climate change and the need for appropriate adaptation action.

- The Commission believes that Corporate Social Responsibility is important for the sustainability, competitiveness, and innovation of EU enterprises and the EU economy and as such supports businesses to be and to become socially responsible, for example with regard to climate action in businesses.

- Other examples include for example a green direct payment to farmers- granted for implementing crop diversification, ecological focus areas and permanent grassland, practices whose environmental benefits is proven. Also, the Bioeconomy Strategy considers how our economy can move away from using fossil carbon, fostering instead a sustainable use of biomass to diminish our CO2 footprint.

- To respond to challenges and investment needs related to climate change, the EU aims to spend at least 20% of EU spending in the period 2014-2020 on climate change-related actions.  To achieve this increase, climate actions have been integrated into all major EU spending programmes, in particular cohesion policy, energy, transport, research and innovation and the Common Agricultural Policy. Relevant EU funding instruments include inter alia the European Fund for Strategic Investments, the European Structural and Investment Funds, Horizon 2020, and the Programme for the Environment and Climate Action (LIFE), the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund, and the Civil Protection Mechanism. It is for example estimated that for the European Structural and Investment Funds the allocation to climate-related actions will be about EUR 115 billion or 25% of the Funds for the 2014-2020 period. For Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation climate-related expenditure is expected to exceed 35% of the overall budget for 2014-2020 period. The EU budget annual allocation to climate action has exceeded the 20% target in 2016 and will remain close to it over 2017-2020. The EU budget is set to deliver slightly above EUR 200 billion as a total climate related spending in the 2014-2020 period.

14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: jobs, growth and investment; a stronger global actor

- The EU is party to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which sets out the legal framework within which all activities in the oceans and seas must be carried out. It is also party to the relevant regional and international conventions on marine pollution prevention and on the conservation and sustainable management of marine resources such as the UN Fish Stocks Agreement, the UN Food and Agriculture organisation's Code of Conduct and Port State Measures Agreement, Regional Fisheries Management Organisations and Arrangements, Regional Seas Conventions, the Convention on Biological Diversity and its Nagoya Protocol, The London Convention and its Protocol and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

- The recently set out EU policy on International Ocean Governance sets out a list of actions that focuses on securing safe, secure, and sustainable development of our oceans at the global level through better and more effective rules as well as more effective knowledge and research.

- Bilateral Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements under the Common Fisheries Policy allow EU vessels to fish only surplus resources in waters of third countries and support partner countries' capacity for sustainable fisheries management.

- EU rules on illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing ensure that all Member States implement their international obligations to manage their fisheries resources and fishing fleets sustainably. They also ensure that only legally caught fish enters the European market, so that the EU is not supporting illegal fishing activities by other States that export marine fisheries products to the EU.

- The EU actively supports the development of a legally binding instrument on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

- Through its development policy the EU supports the protection of the marine environment and sustainable fisheries management in developing countries.

- In its trade and investment policy, the EU has increased the priority given to the sustainable management and conservation of natural resources, such as biodiversity and fisheries, notably by the inclusion of dedicated provisions in the trade and development chapters of its trade and investment agreements, in addition to commitments to core multilateral environmental agreements.

- The EU research and innovation policy is providing further support, for example through the "Galway Statement" of 2013 on the launch of a European Union, Canada and United States of America and Canada Research Alliance on Atlantic Ocean research cooperation. The Commission also supports the G7 Future of the Oceans Initiative agreed on by the Science and Technology Ministers in 2016.

- EU funding instruments include the external component of Horizon 2020, the European Neighbourhood Instrument, the European Development Fund, the Partnership Instrument and the Development Cooperation Instrument as well as the European Development Fund.

- The Common Fisheries Policy main objectives are to achieve environmentally, economically and socially sustainable fisheries and to contribute to the availability of food supplies. It applies the precautionary approach to fisheries management and implements the ecosystem-based approach to it in order to ensure that negative impacts of fishing activities on the marine ecosystem are minimised, and that aquaculture and fisheries activities prevent the degradation of the marine environment. Under the Common Fisheries Policy the EU is committed to take decisions based on best available science and to restore and maintain populations of living marine biological resources above biomass levels which can produce maximum sustainable yield. Other key elements are to increasingly move towards the long-term management of stocks and the introduction of landing obligation. EU rules moreover ensure that only legally caught fish enters the European market, so that the EU is not supporting illegal fishing activities by other States that export marine fisheries products to the EU.

-The 7th Environment Action Programme, the agreed framework for EU environment policy until 2020, commits the EU to protect the Union's natural capital to (inter alia) reduce the impact of pressures on marine waters, in order to achieve or maintain good environmental status.

- The

  Marine Strategy Framework 

  offers a comprehensive and integrated approach to the protection of the marine environment and natural resources and creating a framework for the sustainable use of our marine waters, including through ecosystem-based management. The marine strategy involves many implementation challenges, which are addressed through a Common Implementation Strategy between the Commission and the Member States and a regional approach to the implementation of its objectives. The Birds and Habitats legislation complement the Marine Strategy Framework by protecting 5% of the EU sea area through a network of Marine Protected Areas part of 'Natura 2000'.

- To tackle marine litter and pollution, the EU uses a wide set of instruments, including regulation on waste management and prevention, port reception facilities for ship generated waste and cargo residues. While there is no internal quantitative target for the coverage of marine protected areas in relation to overall marine and coastal surface area, the EU is bound by its commitments as a Party to the Convention on Biological Diversity.

- There is a framework in place for eco-system-based maritime spatial planning in Europe. While each EU country will be free to plan its own maritime activities, local, regional and national planning in shared seas will be made more compatible through a set of minimum common requirements.

- There are also EU recommendations on Integrated Coastal Zone Management which define the principles of sound coastal planning and management.

- The Civil protection Mechanism covers actions in the field of prevention of, preparedness for and response to marine pollution.

- The EU research and innovation policy is providing further support. The EU Joint Programming Initiative on Healthy and Productive Oceans serves as a coordinating and integrating strategic platform, open to all EU Member States and countries associated to Horizon 2020 investing in marine and maritime research. Another example is the EU support to related research and innovation activities through the BLUEMED initiative together with EU Member States bordering the Mediterranean Sea.

- Other examples of EU strategies and legislation linked to the protection of the marine environment are the EU Biodiversity Strategy; the Water Framework, Habitats and Birds, and Wildlife legislation; the circular economy package; the EU framework on drinking water, urban waste water treatment and nitrates pollution prevention; and the EU strategy for the Baltic Region. EU air pollution policy reduces deposition of pollutants leading to eutrophication and acidification. Also REACH, the EU framework to improve the protection of human health and the environment from the risks that can be posed by chemicals deals for example with contaminants in seafood and marine litter.

- EU funding instruments such as Horizon 2020, the Programme for the Environment and Climate Action (LIFE), the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and the Civil Protection Mechanism.

15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: jobs, growth and investment; a stronger global actor

- The EU is a Party to all leading international conventions and protocols relevant to this goal, including the Convention on Biological Diversity and related conventions, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, the International Tropical Timber Agreement and others. The EU provides financial and technical assistance to developing countries to implement these conventions. The EU is contributing to the objective under the Convention on Biological Diversity to double total biodiversity-related funding to developing countries from all sources and to achieve a land-degradation neutral world. The EU is also engaged in the UN Forum on Forests, the UN's voluntary Global Soil Partnership and is Party to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.

- The EU promotes sustainable forest management, the fight against deforestation, forest degradation and illegal logging. The EU's Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Action Plan (FLEGT) involves a set of demand and supply side measure to help developing countries improve forest governance and ensure the legality of the timber they export, and promotes sustainable forest management. The EU also supports REDD+, an initiative at international level to combat deforestation and forest degradation in the tropics.

- The EU supports the fight against wildlife crime, as an external dimension of the EU Action Plan against Wildlife Trafficking.

- The EU actively supports the development at the UN of a legally binding instrument on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

- In its trade and investment policy the EU has increased the priority given to the sustainable management and conservation of natural resources (biodiversity, forests and timber and wildlife), notably by the inclusion of dedicated provisions in the trade and development chapters of its trade and investment agreements, in addition to commitments to core multilateral environmental agreements.

- The Action Plan for the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015 – 2030 implementation includes a strong focus on linking EU internal and external disaster risk reduction priorities with the biodiversity strategies and eco-system-based approaches.

- The EU actively mainstreams environmental objectives in its cooperation with partner countries, for example with developing countries and the enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy third countries. The EU also contributes to specific programmes on conservation, restoration and sustainable management of terrestrial and marine ecosystems, in particular combatting desertification and deforestation, promoting sustainable land, soil and forest management, wildlife conservation, and resilience building.  It is also supporting a range of countries to value ecosystem services and develop natural capital accounts.

- The EU supports the development of an international instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction.

- EU funding instruments such as the European Development Fund, the Development Cooperation Instrument, the Partnership Instrument, the external component of Horizon 2020, the European Neighbourhood Instrument and the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance

- The 7th Environment Action programme, the agreed framework for EU environment policy until 2020, sets as one of its three main priority objectives to protect, conserve and enhance the Union’s natural capital. In this framework several EU policies have been put in place.

- The EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 - which reflects the commitments by the EU towards the Convention on Biological Diversity' Strategic Plan for Biodiversity - sets out targets and actions needed to reverse negative trends, to halt the loss of biodiversity and the degradation of ecosystem services by 2020 and restore them as far as feasible.

- The EU Habitats and Birds legislation is the cornerstone of nature protection in the EU. It provides comprehensive protection to all wild bird species naturally occurring in the Union and to over 1000 most valuable animals and plant species and 200 types of habitat through the EU-wide Natura 2000 network of protected areas, covering 18% of EU land area and 5% of EU sea area.

- The EU has legislation in place to ensure environmental assessments are carried out so that the environmental implications of decisions are taken into account before these decisions are made. This applies both for individual projects, such as a dam, motorway, airport or factory (Environmental Impact Assessments), and for public plans or programmes (Strategic Environmental Assessments).

- Environmental policies for biodiversity also include regulation on invasive alien species and on access and benefit-sharing of genetic resources. EU air pollution policy reduces deposition of pollutants leading to eutrophication and acidification.

- Sustainable forest management, ensuring the protection of forests, is a key pillar of rural development is and is at the heart of the EU Forest Strategy. The Strategy highlights that forests are not only important for rural development, but also for the environment and biodiversity, for forest-based industries, bioenergy, and in the fight against climate change.

- Adopted as part of the EU's Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Action Plan (FLEGT) Action Plan, the EU Timber legislation prohibits the placing on the EU market of illegally logged timber and requires market operators in the EU to exercise due diligence on the legality of their supply chain.

- EU Water Policy also contributes substantially to maintain and improve biodiversity, by setting ecological objectives for all water bodies, including those nurturing wetlands and water-dependent terrestrial ecosystems.

- One of the three objectives of rural development policy under the Common Agricultural Policy is ensuring the sustainable management of natural resources. It provides opportunities to support the restoration and maintenance of habitats in agricultural and forest areas through agri-environment-climate payments and specific support to compensate for disadvantages resulting from the implementation of the Natura 2000 legislation. The Common Agricultural Policy also helps the maintenance of agriculture in remote areas – such as mountain areas – where land abandonment would have adverse effects on ecosystems. Other measures under the rural development policy can also have a positive impact such as the support to organic farming, to afforestation and creation of woodland, establishment of agroforestry systems and prevention and restoration of damages to forests from forest fires and natural disasters and catastrophic events through rural development measures. The Common Agricultural Policy also provides opportunities to support the promotion of sustainable forest management and foresees combatting of desertification and restoration of degraded soil and the prevention of biodiversity loss.

- The EU promotes sustainable use of pesticides as part of its policy by reducing the risks and impacts of pesticide use on human health and the environment and by promoting the use of Integrated Pest Management and of alternative approaches or techniques such as non-chemical alternatives to pesticides.

- The EU Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection aims at promoting a sustainable use of soil, preventing further soil degradation and preserving its functions. The proposal to integrate the land use sector into the 2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework will incentivise climate-friendly land use and forestry.

- The EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change promotes the use of ecosystem-based adaptation, including sustainable forest management, which not only enhances resilience to the impacts of climate change, but also achieves co-benefits in terms of ecosystems and biodiversity protection, as well as improved well-being and health.

- The EU has an action plan against wildlife trafficking which sets out a comprehensive blueprint for joined-up efforts to fight wildlife crime inside the EU, and for strengthening the EU's role in the global fight against these illegal activities. The plan has three main strands – greater enforcement, better cooperation, and more effective prevention.

- The Action Plan for the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015 - 2030 implementation includes a strong focus on linking EU internal and external disaster risk reduction priorities with the biodiversity strategies and eco-system-based approaches.

- As the EU's first investment arm, EU Cohesion Policy also addresses a wide range of EU environmental objectives, becoming the catalyst of the EU transition towards a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. In particular, Cohesion Policy has a thematic objective dedicated to preserving and protecting the environment and promoting resource efficiency, in particular by investing to meet the requirements of the Union's environmental laws and to address needs identified by the Member States. During the period 2014-2020 EUR 35 billion will be invested in the protection of the environment, including for protecting and restoring biodiversity and soil and promoting ecosystem services and green infrastructure. Finally, sustainable development is a legally binding cross-cutting principle, which is mainstreamed at all stages of the implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds.

- EU research and innovation policy sets out nature-based solutions to harvest the benefits of nature for societal challenges, such as land and ecosystem management and restoration.

- EU funding instruments such as the European Structural and Investment Funds, Horizon 2020 and the Programme for the Environment and Climate Action (LIFE).

16. Achieve peaceful and inclusive societies, rule of law, effective and capable institutions

The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: a digital single market; justice and fundamental rights; a stronger global actor; democratic change

- EU action in these areas spans a wide range of policies, instruments and interventions such as development cooperation, humanitarian aid, human rights and democracy support, migration policy, diplomacy, specific conflict prevention and peacebuilding interventions, policies countering violent extremism and tackling organised crime, etc. Relevant measures contributing to this sustainable development goal are also included in association and stabilisation agreements, visa dialogues, other High level dialogues and accession negotiations. Culture and intercultural dialogue for peaceful inter-community relations are promoted.

- The EU Global Strategy on Foreign and Security Policy sets out the strategic direction for the full range of external action and integrates the need for the EU to implement the 2030 Agenda, including addressing the security-development nexus. It calls for promoting integrated solutions to the challenges of conflict, fragility and crisis, recognizing that sustainable development and peace and security are mutually dependent. It brings together the EU's diplomatic action, including mediation, action and support to third parties, with development engagement and other tools.

- The EU Development cooperation policy through the Agenda for Change, the European Neighbourhood Policy and the EU Enlargement Policy are contributing towards achieving peaceful and inclusive societies, rule of law, effective and capable institutions. The EU supports judicial reforms in the enlargement and key neighbourhood countries in order to contribute to effective and independent justice and security sector systems. Through its financial assistance and political dialogues the EU is promoting a broader concept of security, encompassing inclusive and accountable institutions at all levels to strengthen resilience of states and societies. The EU invests in reinforcing key democratic actors – parliaments, civil society, independent media, human right defenders, non-governmental organisations, election administrations and domestic observers, local authorities, anticorruption services and will continue efforts to promote dialogue between different stakeholders. Following the adoption in 2016 of the new EU framework in support to security sector reform, the EU has set up measures to enhance the effectiveness in supporting stability, security and development in third countries. Inter alia through an extension of the Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace, more comprehensive assistance is foreseen for security sector actors in partner countries, in line with the objective of achieving sustainable development.

- The EU is committed to promoting and protecting human rights and to support accountable and inclusive democracy worldwide including through political dialogues, mainstreaming of human rights values and principles, and dedicated financial and technical assistance programmes (e.g. through the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights). The EU has an Action Plan in place on Human Rights and Democracy covering the period 2015-2019. Moreover, over the years, human rights dialogues have been established with an increasing number of third countries in order to ensure access to justice. These dialogues are key instruments for the EU to bilaterally engage on human rights, including on specific themes such as non-discrimination, torture, the death penalty, freedom of religion or belief, access to justice and fair trials, freedom of expression and economic, social and cultural rights etc. Furthermore, the EU is supporting programmes on improving prisons, police training and support to the judiciary and national human rights institutions. There is also a framework in place to support transitional justice. The EU also deploys Election Observation Missions that promote accountable and transparent electoral processes and active participation of citizens during the entire electoral cycle.

-The Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace is one of the key tools that the EU has to respond to crisis and/or to rapidly intervene to preserve peace and prevent conflict. It supports not only urgent short-term actions in response to situations of crisis or emerging crisis, often complementing

  EU humanitarian assistance

  , but also longer-term capacity building of organisations engaged in crisis response and peace-building.

- The EU responds to risks of violent conflict, drawing on the EU's Conflict Early Warning System and joint analysis to drive effective early responses to crises situations. The EU is mainstreaming conflict sensitivity in the programming and implementation of its cooperation to engage in preventive action towards conflicts. The EU engages in international dialogue and cooperation on peace building, notably through the International Dialogue for Peace Building and State Building. The EU works towards strengthening resilience in partner countries as a means to address fragile situations.

- The EU also provides support to this sustainable development goal through the mandates of many of our Common Security and Defence Policy missions and operations.

- The EU is at the forefront of international efforts to fight organised crime, combat the laundering of the proceeds of crime and to counter the financing of terrorist activities and is a party to relevant international conventions and mechanisms. For example, the EU is investing in the reduction of illicit arms flows. The EU has been successful in supporting the creation of a global Arms Trade Treaty that has established global rules for the arms trade and provides tools to fight arms trafficking. A complementary example is the EU policy on trafficking in human beings and EU cooperation with UNESCO to combat illicit trafficking of cultural goods at international level.

- Another example is EU action in the area of child protection, amongst others on child sexual abuse, trafficking, protection of children in asylum and migration, and child victims.

- EU Trade policy also contributes as it for example aims to eliminate conflict minerals from supply chains in order to stop the financing of armed groups through trade in conflict minerals.

- The EU humanitarian assistance promotes the global respect of international humanitarian law and humanitarian principles by implementing activities for the dissemination and implementation of international humanitarian law. It also supports protection activities and contributes to eliminating violence in crises.

- The EU will continue to support UN reform and the participation of developing countries and civil society in processes and existing institutions, as appropriate.

- The EU supports UN's conflict prevention and peacebuilding architecture and also regional organisations, including those with mediation and security roles such as the African Union.

- The EU cooperates with the Council of Europe in the implementation of sustainable development goal n°16, for example in fighting corruption, promoting inclusive societies, advancing judicial reforms, and promoting democratic governance.

- EU funding instruments such as the Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace, the Instrument for Nuclear Safety Cooperation, the European Neighbourhood Instrument, European Development Fund, the Development Cooperation Instrument, the Partnership Instrument, the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance, the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights and the Humanitarian Aid funding instrument.

- The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU brings together in a single document the fundamental rights protected in the EU. The Charter contains rights and freedoms under six titles: Dignity, Freedoms, Equality, Solidarity, Citizens' Rights, and Justice. Proclaimed in 2000, the Charter has the same legal value as the EU Treaties since the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, in December 2009.

- The EU is committed to a better regulation agenda. This is about designing EU policies and laws so that they achieve their objectives in the most efficient and effective way possible. It is a way of working to ensure transparency when preparing, implementing and reviewing policy; to ensure evidence always informs policy making and to ensure stakeholders are involved. To ensure that EU action is - and remains - effective, the Commission assesses the expected and actual impact of policies and legislation and other important measures at every stage – from planning to implementation, review and revision.

- The EU has legislation in place to ensure environmental assessments are carried out so that the environmental implications of decisions, including disaster risk implications, are taken into account before these decisions are made. This applies both for individual projects, such as a dam, motorway, airport or factory (Environmental Impact Assessments), and for public plans or programmes which are prepared for agriculture, forestry, fisheries, energy, industry, transport, waste management, water management, telecommunications, tourism, town and country planning or land use (Strategic Environmental Assessments).

- Since the EU has become a party to the UNECE Aarhus Convention on access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters, the EU has set up several legal instruments to support public access to environmental information. EU legislation also gives the public rights to participate in decision-making that affects the environment.

- The EU has adopted a new initiative, the Environmental Implementation Review. It aims to support delivering the objectives of existing EU environmental policies and legislation in an inclusive and participatory manner through better knowledge about implementation gaps and their root causes, and providing new solutions complementary to legal enforcement. The plan is to publish country-specific reports every two years focusing on essential topics in the area of environmental legislation, followed by country specific dialogues, a peer-to-peer programme and other actions to support Member States' efforts to address implementation gaps.

- The EU is working towards a fully functioning common European area of freedom, security and justice to the benefit of citizens and companies. The area of freedom, security and justice is based on the principle of mutual trust between the Member States and the principle of mutual recognition of judicial decisions. Obstacles to EU citizens exercising their right to move freely and live in any EU country should be removed. Businesses need to be confident that they will be able to effectively enforce contracts and handle litigation throughout the EU, without encountering the hurdles they still confront today.

- An EU framework is in place in the field of civil, criminal and contract law to guarantee the rights of different parties involved. Judicial cooperation between the different Member States is actively promoted.

- Effective justice systems are a prerequisite for an investment and business friendly environment by instilling confidence throughout the entire business cycle. They are also crucial for the implementation of all EU law for the strengthening of mutual trust and the fight against corruption, which has a direct impact on public budgets and the business environment. It is against this background that the improvement of the effectiveness of justice systems in Member States has been identified as a key component for structural reforms in the European Semester, the annual cycle for the coordination of economic policies at EU level. The EU monitors with the help of the Justice Scoreboard the efficiency, quality and independence of the justice systems of the Member States.

- The EU promotes e-government through its e-government action plan 2016-2020, especially for cross-border public services in the framework of the digital single market, for example through a common framework for citizen's electronic identity management (eID).

- The European Agenda on security sets out the main actions envisaged to ensure an effective EU response to terrorism and security threats in the European Union over the period 2015-2020. The Agenda identified three priorities: tackling terrorism and preventing radicalisation, disrupting organised crime, and fighting cybercrime. Other areas of EU intervention include the fight against trafficking in human beings and firearms, the fight against corruption, financial crime and counterfeiting crime.

- The Structural Reform Support Service (SRSS) was set up by the Commission in July 2015 to help EU Member States address implementation challenges of structural reforms, timely and adequate transposition of the Union acquis and efficient and effective use of EU funds. The Service coordinates and provides tailor-made technical support to EU Member States, in cooperation with the relevant Commission services. The objective of providing such support to Member States is to help build more effective institutions, stronger governance frameworks and efficient public administrations.

- As the EU's first investment arm, EU Cohesion Policy has a thematic objective dedicated to enhancing institutional capacity of public authorities and stakeholders and efficient public administration. Through the Cohesion Policy inclusive societies are further reinforced by building non-segregated infrastructure and community-based services. Also, sustainable development is a legally binding cross-cutting principle, which is mainstreamed at all stages of the implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds.

- EU funding instruments such as the European Structural and Investment Funds; the Rights, Equality and Citizens Programme; the Justice Programme; the Internal Security Fund and Horizon 2020.

17. Strengthen Means of Implemen-tation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development

The most important Commission priorities contributing to this sustainable development goal are: a stronger global actor; democratic change

- The EU and its Member States have renewed their collective commitment to provide 0.7% of GNI in Official Development Assistance (ODA) to developing countries, including a commitment of 0.15-0.20% of GNI as Official Development Assistance to Least Developed Countries (LDCs).

- The EU is committed to the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA) which details the means of Implementation for the new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable development. Through its development cooperation policy, neighbourhood policy, enlargement policy and trade policy, the EU will further contribute to strengthening the means of implementation and revitalising the global partnership for sustainable development. The Addis Ababa Action Agenda notably recognises the contribution of trade policy to inclusive growth and sustainable development, and includes a commitment to integrate sustainable development into trade policy at all levels, a commitment which was pushed through by the EU. This dimension is fully reflected in the Trade for All Strategy.

- The EU has been leading the way in integrating sustainable development objectives into trade policy and making trade an effective tool to promote sustainable development worldwide. In support of the 2030 Agenda, the EU will focus on implementation of the sustainable development dimensions of its Free Trade Agreements. The EU is a strong supporter of a universal, rules-based, open, non-discriminatory and equitable multilateral trading system, underpinned by the World Trade Organisation. The EU has the most open trade regime in the world for developing countries, including duty-free, quota-free market access for the least developed countries and under Economic Partnership Agreements. The generalised system of preferences (GSP) has increased exports from developing countries of products covered by up to 5%, with the Everything but Arms scheme generating export increases of approximately 10%.

- Helping people affected by crises and disasters is a global concern and includes coordination at the global level, as essential way to ensure efficient and effective provision of aid to those that need it most. The EU humanitarian assistance includes working in close partnership with a large number of humanitarian and development UN and Civil Society international organisations, through for example, Strategic Dialogues, UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the Good Humanitarian Donorship platform. The Commission also supports a more effective involvement of a broader range of actors in humanitarian contexts, including of the local communities, non-DAC (OECD

  Development Assistance Committee

  ) donors, the private sector and regional organisations. The EU Aid Volunteers Initiative works together with volunteers in vulnerable communities to strengthen their resilience to disasters and to build local capacities. Moreover, the creation of national and local volunteering frameworks and schemes in third countries can be instrumental to increase the capacity of countries to cope with disasters as local communities are the first responders.

- The EU is also committed to development effectiveness. It participates actively in the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation. The EU and its Member States are also increasingly using Joint Programming to improve the coherence and impact of EU interventions in partner countries. The EU also continues to be a champion of aid transparency and publishes comprehensive data to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) standard, in addition to its OECD reporting requirements. The EU has developed an International Development and Cooperation Results Framework, which is reported against on an annual basis. The EU is moreover committed to the use of partner country systems, and is the donor which makes the most use of budget support modalities.

- In the run-up to the Paris Climate Agreement, European Climate Diplomacy played a key role in achieving an ambitious global climate agreement. The EU's and Member States' efforts to keep climate change high on the political agendas in all multi- and bilateral dialogues with 3rd countries and close cooperation with non-state actors (local/ regional governments, civil society, business and financial sectors) together with an unprecedented mobilisation of our diplomatic services around the world, paved the way to the success of the Paris Climate Agreement. The European Climate Diplomacy continues to play a driving role in supporting partners in the implementation of the Paris agreement.

- On finance, the EU aims to adapt its financing modalities and instruments to differing country contexts and aims to target the most concessional resources to those countries with the least opportunity to raise finance elsewhere and the greatest shortfalls. The EU is committed to promoting innovative financing to developing countries, including through blending. The EU Blending Framework covers all regions of EU external cooperation. The External Investment Plan and the related proposed European Fund for Sustainable Development will also be an important tool in this respect. In addition, the EU is strengthening close synergies between blending and budget support for increased development impact. Budget support helps to improve the institutional environment for private investments in areas such as public finance management, procurement, sector development policies, macroeconomic stability and overall economic governance, and thus facilitates the increased use of blending, including in low income countries.

- The EU continues to demonstrate its support for domestic resource mobilisation reforms in developing countries through its 'Collect More – Spend Better' initiative, as well as for improved tax transparency and the fight against tax evasion and avoidance. It is a member of the Addis Tax Initiative. Domestic resources mobilisation reforms not only contribute to financing but also foster the improvement of economic governance, in particular through enhanced accountability of the government towards taxpayers, more transparent and responsible management of public expenditure and the fight against corruption. The EU's 'Collect more–spend better' initiative is a key concept for the implementation of the commitments to support domestic resource mobilisation in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda.

- The EU is committed together with its G20 partners to enhance global macroeconomic stability and promote sound and sustainable financing practices.

- In terms of policies, governance and institutions, the EU supports many partner countries working to improve their governance, taking account of political, economic, social, cultural and environmental dimensions. The EU also continues to have many mutually beneficial sectoral dialogues with third countries, and sectoral cooperation and partnerships with third countries at national as well as at sub-regional and regional level.

- On science, technology and innovation, the EU's research and innovation programme, Horizon 2020, is fully open to participation of researchers from non-EU countries. Researchers from developing countries can receive financial grants as well. Horizon 2020 offers a framework and resources for the co-development, co-design and/or co-adaptation of technologies and solutions for a durable sustainable development.

- Capacity building lies at the heart of the EU's approach to development cooperation. The EU has based its development partnerships with developing country governments and civil society around the millennium development goals. These will be reoriented around the sustainable development goals, taking full account of developing countries own priorities and building on existing cooperation programmes.

- The EU is committed to promoting knowledge sharing with all development partners. The Commission in 2009 launched "Capacity4Dev", a knowledge sharing platform that now has over 19,300 members including staff from EU Institutions, Member States, partner governments, civil society, academia and the private sector. Capacity4dev aims to improve capacity development through knowledge sharing by consolidating knowledge and building an institutional memory, by supporting thematic expertise, by enabling cross-learning among practitioners from the EU institutions and other organisations and by consolidating knowledge sharing tools and communities of practice around a common environment.

- The EU is a global leader on policy coherence for development. By helping to promote the positive impact of EU policies in developing countries, this is an important contributor to policy coherence for sustainable development. For example, the policy dialogue around EU's budget support programmes on consolidating democracies, building capacity, pursuing sustainable and inclusive growth and eradicating poverty, contributes to enhancing policies in partner countries and strengthen capacities.

- In recent years, the EU has significantly strengthened its partnerships on sustainable development and poverty eradication with other stakeholders, including the private sector, civil society, local authorities, academics, private foundations and southern development cooperation partners. The EU supports the development of a structured dialogue with the private sector, notably in the framework of the European External Investment Plan, and of multi-stakeholder approaches.

- On data monitoring and accountability, the EU supports data collection initiatives in developing countries. In the framework of budget support programmes, the EU for example supports technical assistance for improvements in national statistical systems and performance measurement of public policies.

- The EU is promoting the use of Earth observation to supplement statistical analysis in the assessment of indicators towards the attainment of the sustainable development goals. Earth observation and geospatial information provide reliable, unbiased and disaggregated data. The EU is a major player in Earth Observation, particularly being a co-chair of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and managing the European Earth Observation programme Copernicus. With its fleet of Sentinel satellites, the EU provides access to a wealth of data and information in areas ranging from land coverage, urban evolution and oceans to atmospheric pollution, ecosystem protection, climate change, energy production and health conditions.

- EU funding instruments such as the proposed European Fund for Sustainable Development, the European Development Fund, the Development Cooperation Fund, the external component of Horizon 2020 and the European Neighbourhood Instrument and the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance.

- The EU is committed to a better regulation agenda. This is about designing EU policies and laws so that they achieve their objectives in the most efficient and effective way possible. It ensures that impacts across the environmental, social and economic pillars of sustainable development are scrutinised throughout European policies and as such contributes to policy coherence. Moreover, it is a way of working to ensure transparency when preparing, implementing and reviewing policy; to ensure evidence always informs policy making and to ensure stakeholders are involved. To ensure that EU action is - and remains - effective, the Commission assesses the expected and actual impact of policies and legislation and other important measures at every stage – from planning to implementation, review and revision.

- The EU helps Member States in their fight against tax avoidance and illicit financial flows; it promotes macro-economic stability, strengthened policies and institutions, knowledge and innovation, trade, investment and private sector engagement.

- A successful sustainable development agenda requires partnerships between the EU, governments, social partners, the private sector and civil society. Developing and fostering this dialogue is an essential element of the European model of cooperation, of which for EU policy making some examples are given below:

- The Europe 2020 strategy is a shared strategy shared among the European institutions, the member states and the social partners. At EU level, each institution has a part to play in making sure the EU is taking the necessary action to help reach the Europe 2020 targets. At Member State level, full ownership is essential from Heads of States and governments, including regional and local levels. Civil society, social partners and other stakeholders, also have an important role to play, for example in monitoring follow-up on the ground.

- A key tool for ensuring a high level of coordination in external outreach by EU institutions and EU Member States is the 

  Green Diplomacy Network

  (GDN), initially created in 2003. The GDN, managed by the European External Action Service, brings together foreign ministry officials from Member States with the European Commission and the European External Action Service to work on issues of climate change and environment. For more than a decade it has successfully coordinated EU outreach on environment and climate policy through events, seminars, public diplomacy actions and official demarches to third countries.

- Also the EU Policy on Corporate Social Responsibility/Responsible Business Conduct puts focus on reinforced public-private multi-stakeholders partnerships.

- Another example is the nearly EUR 77 billion Horizon 2020 framework programme for research and innovation which through partnerships pools Europe’s resources to tackle the biggest challenges, support competitiveness of sectors that deliver high quality jobs, develop closer synergies with national and regional programmes, and encourage greater private investment in research and innovation. This results for example in Joint Technology Initiatives, Public-Public Partnerships or contractual public-private partnerships. Horizon 2020 is expected to contribute at least 60% of its budget to sustainable development and 35% to climate action.

- Cohesion policy is developed and implemented in a 'partnership principle' engaging a broad range of stakeholders. Each programme is developed through a collective process involving a very broad range of stakeholders at European, regional and local level. This includes regional and local authorities, socio-economic partners and civil society organisations. The partnership principle applies to all stages of the programming process and their implementation. This approach not only helps to ensure that action is adapted to local and regional needs and priorities, but also facilitates ownership and commitment of regional and local stakeholders.

- The EU has adopted a new initiative, the Environmental Implementation Review. It aims to support delivering the objectives of existing EU environmental policies and legislation in an inclusive and participatory manner through better knowledge about implementation gaps and their root causes, and providing new solutions complementary to legal enforcement. The plan is to publish country-specific reports every two years focusing on essential topics in the area of environmental legislation, followed by country specific dialogues, a peer-to-peer programme and other actions to support Member States' efforts to address implementation gaps.

(1)


   The

  European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIFs)

  are the

  European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)

  , the

  Cohesion Fund (CF)

  , the

  European Social Fund (ESF)

  , the

  European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD)

  and

  the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF)

  .