The main issues and policy options identified in the paper are:
- the language of SD should be reclaimed, and the EU SDS should combine the three different strands of sustainability (economic, social and environmental) into one coherent whole;
- any uncertainty as to how the EU’s SD objective and strategy relate to other objectives and strategies, particularly the Lisbon Strategy, should be removed;
- a new SDS, including a vision and principles, should be set out in a single document that is adopted by all EU institutions, and in partnership with key stakeholders. A short term working group could be established, including the key partners, to support the development of a truly EU SDS;
- the EU institutional framework should explicitly reflect SD, not only with SD departments, DGs or committees created, but also by setting up a high level and inter-institutional coordinating mechanism, improving the system of impact assessment, establishing an SD advisory council for the EU and creating a permanent mechanism to link national and EU level SD activities;
- monitoring and checks for SD need to be reinforced by creating reporting and indicator systems that are separate from and feed into the annual Spring review system, and by establishing an auditing mechanism for SD issues; and
- building on the existing SD objectives, the EU should develop concrete and time specific targets, such as those identified above, that work towards the EU becoming a global leader on SD issues.
