Brussels, 28/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Union has hailed the global agenda for sustainable development for the next 15 years, which was adopted in New York on 27 September. It describes this agenda as a change in paradigm for sustainable development in the world and the eradication of poverty.
The United Nations negotiations were concluded on 3 August, and the 17 sustainable development goals (SDG) - which are to take over from the millennium development goals (MDG) - were formally adopted on 26 September in order to eradicate hunger and extreme poverty, to reduce inequalities between and within different countries, to achieve gender equality, to take urgent action to fight climate change, and to preserve the planet's resources.
SDG stronghold against outdated models and new threats. On behalf of the EU, for which he was the spokesperson in New York, European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans stressed the historic turning point of this universal agenda. The EU commits to its implementation and this will be no mean task, judging from the very unequal progress achieved until now. Social inclusion, natural resources and public development aid are, indeed, the weak links in applying the EU's sustainable development agenda, according to Eurostat (see EUROPE 11379).
“The MDGs have shown us that the lack of development in certain countries is a threat for all of us. The same goes for unsustainable development on the world level. The challenge today is to commit us to overcoming this threat together”, the UN states, speaking about increasing inequalities, the erosion of social cohesion, and unprecedented global competition for resources.
The SDGs will apply to all. “The list is long. But these goals are comprehensive because they reflect the reality of today's world - and the way today's problems are daunting, complex, interlinked (…) The models that worked for so many of us in the past are not the ones that will work for all of us in the future. We have to redefine our societies, our relationship with nature”, Timmermans stated.
More aid, but not only. Timmermans reaffirmed the EU's collective commitment to allocating 0.7% of its GNI to public development aid - an objective that it has not met in 2015, the trend being a downwards one in recent years among certain member states (see EUROPE 11327). “There is no excuse for not meeting our 0.7% target for official development assistance. It's more urgent than ever. But this time, under the SDGs, it's not about just footing the bill. Those countries fortunate enough to have a developed or emerging economy are committed to playing a different role. This is not just about development aid. It's just as much about change at home”, he said.
In New York, the EU28 development ministers were invited by High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development Neven Mimica to celebrate the adoption of the SDGs on 26 September. Joined by the head of the EIB, Werner Hoyer, and by Amina Mohamed, the special adviser to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, they debated implementation of the agenda in the EU. “We are now committed to taking this agenda forward both inside the EU and through the EU's external policies by supporting implementation efforts in third countries, in particular those most in need. The implementation of the new 2030 agenda will be key in tackling the root causes of the refugee crisis”, Mogherini and Mimica state in a joint press release.
The European ministers for development also held an exchange of views on the current refugee crisis and on the solutions to implement in order to tackle the root causes of this crisis in Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Western Balkans. The meeting in New York also enabled them to have a first general exchange of views on the European Commission's proposal to set up an emergency trust fund for Africa, to be given €1.8 billion initially. The EU Foreign Affairs Council, will debate this on 26 October in its development format. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang).