The WWF welcomed the conclusions of the EU Council, which on Tuesday 9 April called on Europe to make sustainable development a top priority and to adopt a comprehensive and exhaustive strategy for implementing the universal sustainable development goals (SDGs) in the EU, as this request reflects its own.
Since 2015, this NGO has been calling loud and clear for such a strategy, so that the EU can give itself the means to implement the universal sustainable development programme by 2030 and its 17 SDGs (see EUROPE 11869/17, 11631/22). In particular, it welcomes the demand for accelerated implementation.
“National governments today recognised that the EU needs to considerably step up its efforts to fully live up to its commitments for sustainable development, and that doing so will bring a wealth of benefits for Europe and its citizens”, commented Ester Asin, Director of WWF's European Office, a member of the European Commission's multi-stakeholder platform on the SDGs, in a statement.
She hopes that “4 years after the SDGs were first adopted, we now hope that this call from Member States will at last provoke some much-needed action”. While the Commission has merely presented a discussion paper, to which the EU Council's conclusions respond, it considers it “regrettable that the current Commission missed this critical opportunity to leave a meaningful legacy, instead kicking the can down the road to its successor”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)