On the 2nd February 2004, a manifesto entitled “Investing for a Sustainable Future” was presented to the Irish Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, at a high-level conference held in Dublin. The conference was organised jointly by the European Trade Union Confereration (ETUC), European Environmental Bureau (EEB) and the Platform of European Social NGOs (Social Platform) as part of the campaign for Investing in Sustainable Development.1

The campaign highlights the urgent need to make the EU’s commitment to sustainable development a reality by channelling financial resources to support sustainable development goals, and creating the right legislative framework to ensure that public and private money is spent in a sustainable manner. This means that investments must be directed towards initiatives which support mutually reinforcing social, economic, employment and environmental goals.

This year’s Spring European Council (‘Spring Summit’), in reviewing progress made on the EU’s Lisbon and Sustainable Development goals2, must recognise the importance of investing in sustainable development in order to achieve these goals, and commit to doing so.

We, EUROCADRES,Council of European professional and managerial staff call on you to actively support a sustainable future for Europe by helping ensure that the Conclusions of this year’s Spring European Council include a commitment to Investing in Sustainable Development

The manifesto sets out a number of ways in which the EU can support investment in sustainable development, both by investing its own budget sustainably and also by creating a framework which encourages public authorities around Europe to do so.

In line with the EU’s commitment to sustainable development, we demand:

Clear Measures to encourage public authorities to give social and environmental factors a prominent place in public procurement decisions and inform them of possibilities for doing so under EU rules.
The redirection of Research and Development investments towards the required technical and socio-economic solutions to the challenge of sustainable development.
Specific programmes and initiatives aimed at promoting investment in sustainable housing, transport and other goods and services at the national, regional and local level, integrating and implementing concrete social and environmental objectives.
A shift from taxes on labour to taxes on resources to encourage sustainable investment
Measures to ensure sufficient means for effective implementation and enforcement of social and environmental legislation.