ABSTRACT
The sustainable development concept means different things to different people and in different contexts. The concept suggests a reframing of the approach to economic growth, social interaction, and resource use. In some readings, the concept is revolutionary. It appears that, after three decades, the basic philosophies underpinning the concept are largely uncontested, even if there remains a great variation in both the concept’s ultimate requirements and in expectations of what implementing the concept will achieve. As a concept, sustainable development is central to the protection of the environment in EU law. It is natural to expect that when a concept is so important to the EU agenda, that concept will establish as a general principle to promote the international sustainability agenda within the EU legal order. But sustainable development in EU law has come up against the challenge of a concept with such flexibility in meaning in terms of what it says about how a standard can be understood in any clear or absolute way that can be applied by a court.
