Europe Commission’s Bioeconomy Strategy : Changes made during the old and renewed strategy years 2012 and 2018

As we live in a world of limited resources facing multiple global challenges, like climate change, we will need to find new ways to sustainable produce and consume in respect for people today and the next generations to come. While keeping in mind the ecological limitations, the global economy needs to grow in order to ensure the prosperity of the people. The aim of this thesis is to examine, how the European Union Bioeconomy Strategies have influenced the progress of bioeconomy inside the Union as a whole and inside different Member States. The European Union published its first Bioeconomy Strategy back in 2012 and updated it in 2018 in the light of new regulations and discoveries. The aim for these two Strategies was to introduce bioeconomy better to the European Union Member States, and to encourage investments and new research to benefit all bioeconomy sectors while creating sustainable businesses and form a more innovative, resource efficient and competitive society. One of the main accomplishment of the 2012 Strategy was its influence on Member States, of which many started drafting their own Bioeconomy Strategies in correlation to their own strengths and available resources. This thesis will firstly look into the changes within the two European Union Strategies, secondly explore the Spain, Finland and Latvia’s Bioeconomy Strategies in relation to the EU Strategies, and additionally summarize the finding and compare the three Member States in question. Finally some speculations and suggestions are formed from the basis of these comparisons