The European Structural Funds and Sustainable Development

Sustainable development (SD) is now a broad policy objective in the European Union (EU). This article explores how the contribution to SD of the EU Structural Funds (SFs) might be evaluated. It suggests the use of a ‘four-capitals model’ of SD, and outlines how commonly accepted principles and dimensions of sustainability might be interpreted within such a model. The article then reviews various approaches to SD indicators, concluding that an indicator framework is preferable to the various methods of aggregation of indicators that have been proposed. It then relates the indicator issue to the framework for evaluation of the SFs set out by the European Commission. Out of this discussion an illustrative indicator set for such an evaluation, related to the four-capitals model of SD, is derived.

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