The EU Sustainable Development Strategy adopted in 2001, and renewed in 2006 and in 2009, defines the EU’s actions, objectives and targets aimed at putting Europe on the path towards sustainable development. Eurostat regularly monitors progress towards these objectives, using a set of more than 130 sustainable development indicators (SDIs), which are grouped into 10 themes. Most thematic areas include one headline indicator.

On a biannual basis, Eurostat publishes a monitoring report to update on progress based on the recent SDI data. The last report published in 2015 covers the period from 1990 to 2014 and describes the relationship between the EU SDS and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.