(20 September 2018) – The Eurostat publication, “Sustainable development in the European Union — Monitoring report on progress towards the SDGs in an EU context – 2018 edition”, provides a statistical overview of progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals in the EU.
Overall, based on the indicators selected to monitor these goals in an EU context, the EU made progress towards most of the 17 SDGs over the past five years. Progress for some goals has been faster than for others.
The EU made strongest progress over the last 5 years towards the overall achievement of SDG 3 ‘good health and well-being’, followed by SDG 4 ‘quality education’ and SDG 7 ‘affordable and clean energy’.
The EU appears however to have moved away from the sustainable development objectives for SDG 10 ‘reduced inequalities’ over the past five years. This is due to the continued rise of income inequalities within EU Member States, a development that is not specific for the past five years but that has already been visible since 2005.