Brussels, 23/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - EU environment ministers are unanimous in the view that the global sustainable development goals (SDGs) expected to be adopted at the UN summit in New York, 25-27 September, present an opportunity not to be missed to revitalise EU environmental policy, which has taken a bit of a beating recently.
During an exchange of views on the environmental strand of the SDGs, which laid particular stress on Europe's biodiversity which is still under threat and on the mid-term review of the EU strategy to 2020 - this review is continuing and the Luxembourg Presidency is still hopeful that ambitious conclusions can be adopted at the December Council at the latest.
Ministers believe that the SDGs are as much a challenge as an opportunity to draft a more coherent and equitable policy, said Environment Council President Carole Dieschbourg, after the informal meeting on Thursday 23 July. She added, summarising the main threads of the debate, that the ministers want the EU to lead the way on implementation of SDGs, goals which are a tool for strengthening European environmental policies. “These goals”, she said, “are a reality check for our policies: implementing the SDGs in the EU means that Environment needs to stay high on the agenda and has to be mainstreamed into other policies”.
Broad agreement was achieved on three points: - the SDGs are both an opportunity and a challenge at international and EU levels towards more sustainable, equitable and coherent policy-making; - the EU must show leadership in the implementation of the environmental aspects of the SDGs; - adoption of universal targets for eradicating poverty and for sustainable development will be an important step towards Paris climate conference because they contain a climate chapter and climate change disproportionately and more severely affects the poor and vulnerable in developing countries.
Several delegations expressed the view that, in addition, the SDGs offer a way of remedying the inconsistencies of EU policies; coherence of policies serving development is a duty enshrined in the Treaty of the EU. These delegations made clear that it is not possible, on the one hand, to welcome the prospect of SDGs and, on the other, create uncertainty: uncertainty in the circular economy through the withdrawal of the proposal that was on the table and possible legal uncertainty over the protection of biodiversity with the watering-down of the nature protection directives (the habitats and birds directives) following the “health check” taking place as part of the “better regulation” agenda.
This, too, the ministers highlighted, is a matter of coherence - and a strong signal to the European Commission that the EU has to be given the means to meet its ambitions. Germany, supported principally by Austria and the Czech Republic, was most vociferous in defending the gains of what it called the very precious habitats and birds directives. The NGO BirdLife sang from the same hymn sheet in its presentation to ministers over lunch on Wednesday of its report published on 2 June ahead of the mid-term evaluation of the European biodiversity strategy (see EUROPE 11326).
Without dwelling on these issues, European Environment Commissioner Karmenu Vella simply acknowledged that “bad policies can hinder achieving SDG targets”. He also underlined the need for discussion within the UN of the “delivery gap” between the ambitions of national, European and international approaches to the SDGs.
Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), who took part in the debate, said that “SDGs are part of the DNA of EU progress”. He spoke of questioning taking place at the UN on the high number of SDGs and the difficulty of implementing them in the future but, he said, the SDGs are complex and the implementation instruments have to reflect that complexity.
To guide the debate, the Luxembourg Presidency had asked the ministers to respond to a number of questions. How can the European policies on environment best contribute to meeting the objectives of the goals and targets of the post-2015 agenda? How can EU policy coherence be reinforced to maximise the EU's contribution to the attainment of the SDG agenda domestically and at global level? What governance mechanisms should be considered to support effective implementation at EU and member state level? In view of the forthcoming mid-term review of the EU biodiversity strategy to 2020, how can the post-2015 agenda contribute to delivering biodiversity objectives domestically and globally? (Aminata Niang)