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(...) Total state aid (excluding transport and agriculture) by member States increased from €60 billion in 2012 to €91 billion in 2014, largely due to an increase in aid for environmental protection (including energy saving). (...)

The latest reform of the Common Fisheries Policy, which took effect on 1 January 2014, established a legal commitment to sustainable fishing levels, a ban on discards (the landing obligation), and measures to reduce overcapacity while continuing the use of multi-annual recovery and management plans. In February 2017, there were 12 plans combining different fisheries management tools, including a maximum sustainable yield, the landing obligation, technical measures, and total allowable catches (TACs) and fishing quotas. In 2014, 31 stocks out of 59 were fished in accordance with estimates of the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) and, by 2020, the TAC for all stocks are to be based on MSY estimates. EU fishing outside of EU waters is to be based on Regional Fisheries Management Organizations and through Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements, while the EU cooperates with third countries and international organizations on illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing worldwide.

The EU continues to follow its Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. As such, it has set priorities and targets for certain aspects of the economy, these are:
(...)
• Climate change and energy sustainability: greenhouse gas emissions 20% lower than 1990 levels, 20% of energy coming from renewables, 20% increase in energy efficiency; (...)

(...) Regarding Europe 2020 goals, most of the progress has been observed in the areas of climate change and energy sustainability and education. (...)

Box 2.1 Objectives of the updated trade and investment policy strategy
The EU will focus attention on, inter alia, achieving the following: (...)
(iii) A trade and investment policy based on values by:
(...)
• Expanding measures to support sustainable development, fair and ethical trade, and human rights, including by ensuring effective implementation of related FTA provisions and the Generalised Scheme of Preferences. (...)

While the EU reiterates the importance of the WTO as the central and pre-eminent forum for developing and enforcing the rules of global trade, it has moved away from a "single undertaking" approach by announcing that it will seek more issues-based negotiations at the multilateral level and limited plurilateral initiatives (still ultimately open to all WTO countries) to achieve gradual improvements to international trade rules. The international negotiations with other WTO Members on the plurilateral Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) , the Information Technology Agreement (ITA) and the Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA) [8] are also seen by the Commission as stepping stones to further liberalization in this area of trade in goods and services as well as trade-related aspects of intellectual property.

[8] Since July 2014, the EU and 16 other WTO Members have been negotiating the EGA to remove barriers to trade in environmental or "green" goods.

The EU's preferential FTAs go beyond trade in goods. The new generation of EU FTAs cover goods, services, intellectual property, investment, government procurement, access to energy and raw materials, customs and trade facilitation, competition (including subsidies and state-owned enterprises), and regulatory cooperation. They contain commitments on customs duty reduction, access to services markets – to be able to fully take advantage of the tariff engagements, and tools to reduce or eliminate "non-tariff barriers" such as technical regulations or unjustified sanitary barriers. In addition, the EU emphasizes areas which are important in terms of values such as sustainable development and the protection of human rights.

The EU Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP), introduced in 1971 and implemented through successive Council regulations, is a trade policy instrument that continues to support sustainable development and good governance in developing countries. As noted in the previous Review, in 2012 the EU reformed the GSP (as set out by Regulation (EU) No. 978/2012 of the European Parliament and the Council of 25 October 2012) in order to focus support on developing countries most in need. The GSP provides a general GSP arrangement and two special arrangements:
• The general arrangement ("Standard GSP") grants duty reductions for circa 66% of all EU tariff lines to countries of low or lower-middle income status, which do not benefit from other preferential trade access to the EU market. There are currently 30 Standard GSP beneficiaries.
• The Special Incentive Arrangement for Sustainable Development and Good Governance ("GSP+") grants complete duty suspension for essentially the same 66% of tariff lines as the Standard GSP, for countries especially vulnerable in terms of their economies' diversification and import volumes. In return, beneficiary countries must ratify and effectively implement 27 core international conventions [12]. As of November 2016, there were nine GSP+ beneficiaries (Armenia, Bolivia, Cabo Verde, Georgia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Paraguay and the Philippines). As set out in the GSP Regulations, the initial lifetime of the GSP+ is 10 years (i.e. it will apply until 31 December 2023).
• The Everything But Arms ("EBA") special arrangement grants full duty-free, quota-free access for all products except arms and ammunition, for countries classified by the UN as LDCs. There are currently 49 EBA beneficiaries.

[12] There are 7 conventions on human rights, 8 work-related conventions of the ILO, 8 conventions on environmental protection and climate change, and 4 good governance conventions under UN auspices against corruption and the control of illegal drugs.

In January 2016, the Commission published its first biannual report to the European Parliament and the Council on the effects of the reformed GSP, in particular the GSP+ arrangement supporting sustainable development and good governance. The report covers 14 countries that benefited from GSP+ preferences in 2014 and 2015 (Armenia, Bolivia, Cabo Verde, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Georgia, Guatemala, Mongolia, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and the Philippines).

In terms of enforcement, for 2015, the EU recorded 7,000 infringements of CITES and more than 19,000 infringements of goods presenting a risk for consumers in terms of sanitary, phytosanitary and veterinary technical standards.