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The EU is committed to actively helping people around the world trade their way out of poverty. In particular, one of the EU's basic objectives is to ensure that economic growth and development go hand in hand with social justice and sustainable environmental practices, thereby contributing to achieving sustainable development worldwide. The EU's GSP+ scheme and bilateral trade agreements are two of the main instruments in which this principle is applied, as described below.

On 1 January 2014 the revised GSP (Generalised Scheme of Preferences) started to apply. The fundamental structure of three arrangements – general GSP, the Special Incentive Arrangement for Sustainable Development and Good Governance (GSP+), and Everything But Arms (EBA) – was kept, but most other aspects of the Scheme were substantially reformed to reflect changes in the international trade landscape.

The main features of the revised Scheme are:
(...) c. reinforcement of the trade incentives for the respect of core human and labour rights, environmental and good governance standards through strengthened GSP+ (the GSP+ requires the respect of a list of international Conventions ); (...)

The EU's GSP consists of three arrangements:
(...) GSP+, which offers additional tariff reductions to "vulnerable" countries that ratify and effectively implement core international conventions in the fields of human rights, labour rights, environmental protection, and good governance; (...)

(...) The Investment Plan is intended to support "strategic investments" in infrastructure, including broadband and energy networks, transport infrastructure, renewable energy, and research and innovation.

Since foreign direct investment became an exclusive competence of the EU in 2009 , in a Communication in 2010 the EU laid out a strategy to deploy a common investment policy covering the main building blocks of an international investment policy, with the purpose of increasing EU competitiveness and thus contributing to the objectives of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. (...)

First of all, the EU has been a long-standing advocate of removing tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade in environmental goods and services. Eliminating tariffs and other barriers to trade in environmental goods and technologies will contribute to their worldwide deployment, thus promoting environmental protection and the fight against climate change. In July 2014, the EU together with 13 other WTO members formally opened plurilateral negotiations on liberalisation of trade in environmental ('green') goods and technologies. In the EU's view, the first objective of the negotiations is to eliminate tariffs on a broad number of environmental goods. Secondly, the negotiations should lead to a 'future-oriented agreement' with a review mechanism for products and a work programme on other issues in the sector such as Non-Tariff Barriers and services. An Environmental Goods Agreement will be beneficial to all WTO Members and will apply on an MFN- basis.

(...) The new CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) also aims to: make European agriculture more sustainable and maintain farming in all regions of the EU; ensure European citizens can consume healthy, high-quality food; and preserve the environment and help develop the EU’s rural areas. An entirely new system of direct payments will be introduced, which will put a stronger emphasis on environmental stewardship, with farmers being able to apply it as of calendar year 2015 with payments being made as of the budget year 2016. (...)

On 20 November 2013, the EU adopted its 7th Environment Action Programme (EAP) to 2020. It is a common strategy for both EU institutions and Member States and shall guide environment policy. The EAP identifies three key objectives to be achieved by 2020:
• to protect, conserve and enhance the Union’s natural capital;
• to turn the Union into a resource-efficient, green, and competitive low-carbon economy;
• to safeguard the Union's citizens from environment-related pressures and risks to health and wellbeing.
In addition, four so-called 'enablers' will help Europe deliver on these goals:
• better implementation of legislation;
• better information by improving the knowledge base;
• more and wiser investment for environment and climate policy;
• full integration of environmental requirements and considerations into other policies.
Finally, two additional horizontal priority objectives complete the programme:
• to make the Union's cities more sustainable;
to help the Union address international environmental and climate challenges more effectively;

One of the EU's priorities is a resilient Energy Union with a forward-looking climate change policy. In February 2015, the European Commission adopted the so-called 'Energy Union Package' for ensuring secure, affordable and climate-friendly energy for citizens and businesses.