The first draft of the SNSDS (prepared by a working group consisting of all government ministries) was distributed to the regional authorities for comments and feedback. Moreover, the SNSDS was discussed with regional representatives in the so-called ‘sectoral conferences’ in which the national and regional Administrations discuss sectoral policy issues.

Regional representatives were also invited and participated in the ‘Conference on Sustainable Development’ which was held in July 2007. Several stakeholder groups participated and discussed in working groups on various dimensions of the SNSDS. Many comments were received during this conference which would then be included in the SNSDS.

Most of the 17 autonomous regions have developed their own regional SD strategies, although with different degrees of formality.

Regions mainly include their own particular circumstances in these strategies. However, they have to take into account the SNSDS as well as the EU SDS objectives.

Although no formal body for the coordination between national and sub-national levels has been established (there is no National Council for SNSDS), sectoral policies are coordinated by the national government and agreements are discussed and eventually signed in those areas for which the regions have implementation responsibilities. The main concern here is to include environmental issues (i.e. SD issues) in sectoral policies.

EU linkages

The renewed EU Strategy for Sustainable Development (EU SDS) adopted in June 2006 foresees that Member States bi-annually report about how they address the priorities of the EU SDS. Spain published its first national report on implementing the EU SDS in July 2007. Since then, regional and sectoral surveys take that commitment in charge.

The SNSDS  included seven high-priority areas: climate change and clean energies; sustainable transport; sustainable production and consumption; public health challenges; management of natural resources; social inclusion, demography and migration; and the fight against world-wide poverty.