Report of the independant Commission for Sustainable Equality

Abstract

The Independent Commission for Sustainable Equalityhas been entrusted with a mission to develop a newprogressive vision rooted in sustainable development.This mission, aimed at combating growing inequalitiesin Europe, is inspired by the 2030 SustainableDevelopment Goals adopted by all European MemberStates and other countries in the United Nations in 2015.This visionary agenda has still not been fully and clearlyincorporated into European policy, or translated intospecific European policy objectives.This is the Independent Commission's first policy report.It issues a call to action for a radically different Europe,through over 100 policy proposals which can be pursuedby progressive parties and other actors during the nextterm from 2019 to 2024, and embedded with a radicallydifferent approach to European governance built on anew Sustainable Development Pact.The Independent Commission insists on the urgency ofthis radical policy action, in the face of several crises thatare mutually and increasingly reinforcing each other, andby the need to revive social democracy at a highly criticaljuncture of its political history. These crises - economic,social, environmental and political - are a result of theprevailing economic system. In the absence of profoundchange these crises will lead to democratic collapse,either because authoritarian populist and extremistforces will gain decisive power across Europe, or becausethese economic, social or environmental crises will havereached a destabilising stage for society. For example, thenew report by the Intergovernmental Panel on ClimateChange (IPCC) made the environmental challengevery clear. A new financial crisis, which some expertsare already predicting, could have devastating effectson our economies building on the persistent negativeeffects of the 2008 crisis. Insufficient progress has beenmade to make the eurozone more resilient to shocks.A continuing deterioration of social conditions, fuelledby rising inequalities and growing insecurity, not leastin left behind regions across Europe, in rural areas, andin and around our urban centres, could present serioussystemic risks, channeling more electoral support toauthoritarian populist and extremist parties.This bleak outlook stands in contrast to what couldbe achieved if radically progressive policies weresuccessfully pursued. This is what the IndependentCommission has sought to contribute by laying outa detailed and concrete policy strategy - as well as amessage of hope and of determination that a differentEurope can be achieved; a message also to progressiveparties that they must take the political lead, joinup forces with trade unions and with progressiveorganisations in civil society, to mobilise from bottomup and claim a different political path.There is an inconvenient truth about Europe. Nearlyone third of our children and our young people are atrisk of poverty or in poverty, millions of young peoplecannot find a job to start shaping their adult life, andmore than half of adult Europeans believe that youngergenerations will have a life worse than their own.Through the policies in this report, we can also engageyounger generations and tell them that there is no predetermined bleak future. If we take action to modifyEurope's course, a very different society can emerge- a society of sustainable equality, of well-being foreveryone, of economic, social and ecological balanceand peace, leaving no person and no place behind.