Answer given by Mr Gentiloni on behalf of the European Commission

11.2.2020

The Commission has been working on the provision of high-quality information on wellbeing for many years following the 2007 conference and the roadmap on ‘Beyond gross domestic product (GDP)’, the Sponsorship Group[1] and the European Statistical System Memorandum[2] on ‘Measuring Progress, Wellbeing and Sustainable Development’. The EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) play a central role[3].

Moreover, Eurostat has published a set of quality of life indicators since 2015[4] , combining objective and subjective evaluation of individuals' situations[5]. Regulation (EU) 2019/1700[6] will also allow a broader multidimensional measurement of wellbeing in EU-SILC and assessment of activities performed in the Time Use Survey.

The Finnish Presidency held a high-level conference in September 2019[7] and the EPSCO[8] Council adopted the conclusions[9] on the Economy of Wellbeing, promoting the fact that people wellbeing is a prerequisite for a sustainable economic growth.

The Commission will work further to put the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 United Nations Agenda at the centre of policy making. The Annual Sustainable Growth Strategy 2020 brings environmental sustainability fully into the picture and adding it to the other priorities of fairness, productivity and macroeconomic stability.

The Commission monitors progress towards the SDG using around 100 indicators[10] and Eurostat already published three reports accordingly[11].

• [1] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/ess/about-us/measuring-progress
• [2] https://www.nsi.bg/sites/default/files/files/pages/dgins/dgins_papers/Sofia_memorandum_Final.pdf
• [3] Eurostat just published 2018 wellbeing data from EU-SILC: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/2995521/10207020/3-07112019-AP-EN.pdf/f4523b83-f16b-251c-2c44-60bd5c0de76d
  https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Subjective_well-being_-_statistics
• [4] It covers eight dimensions on Material living conditions, productive or other main activity, health, education, leisure and social interactions, economic security and physical safety, governance and basic rights, natural and living environment as well as a ninth dimension on the ‘overall experience of life’. An Expert Group selected 17 headline indicators among them and recommended a further list of indicators: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-statistical-reports/-/KS-FT-17-004
• [5] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/gdp-and-beyond/quality-of-life/data
• [6] Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 October 2019 establishing a common framework for European statistics relating to persons and households, based on data at individual level collected from samples ( OJ L 261I, 14.10.2019, p. 1.).
  https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32019R1700&from=EN
• [7] https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/events/high-level-conference-on-the-economy-of-well-being
• [8] Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs.
• [9] https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-13432-2019-INIT/en/pdf
• [10] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/sdi/overview
• [11] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-statistical-books/-/KS-02-19-165