The potential of EU policies for achieving wellbeing economies

Abstract The environmental crisis, growing levels of social inequalities and rising levels of non-communicable diseases are all symptoms of economic systems that are failing to generate wellbeing. There is increasing support for the notion that addressing these crises requires shifting the focus from economic growth to a broader range of measures that reflect wellbeing, through more comprehensive, consistent and integrated policy approaches to deliver this. This presentation explores to what extent the concept of the Wellbeing Economy is being applied at the EU level, by tracking changes in some of the EU’s key policies and strategies over the past 10 years and in the Semester process, as a mechanism to implement them. It concludes that while progress towards more integrated policy approaches have been made, it is limited by the continuing emphasis on economic, over other policy areas. Recommendations will be made for an even more comprehensive EU Strategy that enables policy sectors to deliver wellbeing objectives in a more coordinated manner and on how to ensure health and wellbeing remain on policy-making agendas.