With the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) being set back as a result of the new global geopolitical context and multiple crises, and with only six years left to achieve them, MEPs on the Development Committee (DEVE) and the Environment Committee (ENVI) of the European Parliament have called for a turnaround on Monday 22 May.
The joint report by Udo Bullmann (S&D, German) for the DEVE committee and Petros Kokkalis (The Left, Greek) for ENVI on ‘Implementing and achieving the SDGs’ is a recommendation for the EU to adopt an ambitious position at the UN High Level Political Forum (HLPF) in New York on 10–19 July and at the World Summit on the SDGs on 19–20 September, which is considered to be “a crucial moment for a renewed political commitment to the SDGs to salvage the 2030 agenda”. It was adopted by a show of hands, on the basis of 39 compromise amendments supported by the EPP, S&D, Greens/EFA and The Left political groups.
2023 is a pivotal year for reviewing the SDGs and to push for them to be achieved by 2030, especially with the submission by the EU of its first voluntary mid-term review report of the implementation period (see EUROPE 13156/18), emphasised the joint report.
MEPs are sorry that the European Commission has not yet set out a comprehensive strategy for the EU’s implementation of the SDGs or a plan for financing the SDGs, like the European Parliament (see EUROPE 12964/21) and the EU Council have consistently requested.
They believe that “collective action on a new scale is urgently needed to respond to poverty that damages hundreds of millions of lives and to respond to the unprecedented threats to the habitability of our planet posed by the interlinked climate and biodiversity crises”.
In their opinion, the SDGs should be taken into account in EU policies that affect third countries, especially the most vulnerable countries, while also ensuring that the objective of poverty eradication remains a top priority.
They emphasised the fact that the success of the European Green Deal and the promise of a fair green transition are “inextricably linked to achieving the SDGs” and that, according to the 2019 IPBES assessment, negative trends in biodiversity and ecosystems will undermine progress towards achieving 80% of the poverty, hunger, health, water, urban, climate, ocean and land-related SDGs.
For Udo Bullmann, who spoke before the vote, “the achievement of the SDGs and the UN’s ambitious 2030 Agenda is the only possible common response to the many conflicts that affect the world. We can contribute and support Member States’ activities to fill our gaps”. Petros Kokkalis was absent.
See the compromise amendments voted: https://aeur.eu/f/70j (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)