Brussels, 17/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - Eradicating poverty at source must be central to the 17 global sustainable development goals for post-2015, on which consensus has already been reached and which will be adopted in New York at a special UN summit (25-27 September), the members of the European Parliament stressed, in Brussels on Thursday 17 September.
The importance of implementing these goals and the very close links between this UN summit and the Paris climate conference, to be held at the end of the year (COP 21, 30 November-11 December), was once again stressed by the MEPS, during a plenary debate.
“Poverty is a reality of the globalised world and concerns us all. It is vital to determine the instruments to set in place the sustainable development agenda for 2030”, said Nicolas Schmit, on behalf of the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council. To ensure correct implementation, Frans Timmermans, vice-president of the European Commission, called for “all aspects of the sustainable development be included in all relevant sectorial policies” and for increased coherence across all EU policies. The lack of financial resources made available for development aid points to a lack of coherence (see EUROPE 11379). He therefore called for each member state to do the necessary to ensure that the EU keeps to its long-standing commitment to allocate collectively 0.7% of its GNI public development aid.
“We need new contributions from all of the member states”, added the MEP Davor Ivo Stier (EPP, Croatia), rapporteur for the sustainable development summit. He said that the EU must “properly control the implementation of the agenda and tackle the causes of poverty rather than its consequences”. Linda McAvan (S&D, UK), president of the committee on the environment of the EP, who will head up the delegation of eight MEPs to New York, stressed the importance of “having the right indicators and common methodology” to implement the future development goals effectively and of “putting fresh money on the table” to ensure adequate funding.
The resolution adopted by the Parliament in late 2014 called for the post-2015 development agenda to adopt as its priorities the eradication of poverty, the fight against inequality, the protection of human rights, sustainable healthcare systems and the inclusion of gender equality issues in all of the development goals. (AN)