The absence of clear references to SDGs and the lack of
involvement of cities and regions in the national
recovery plans could compromise the capacity to
overcome the pandemic crisis
European local and regional leaders are calling for
the Sustainable Development Goals of the United
Nations (SDGs) to be put back on the top of the
European Union's agenda, asking the EU institutions
and Member States to ensure their implementation by
2030. In
an opinion
adopted today by its plenary, the European
Committee of the Regions (CoR) highlights that the
COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the importance
of sustainable development and that SDGs can help
move towards a coherent, holistic vision within
Next Generation EU
. However, a recent CoR study points out a lack of
explicit and transparent reference to the UN SDGs
in many national recovery and resilience plans.
The ongoing pandemic and its expected economic, social
and environmental consequences show a clear urgency to
support the "localisation" of the SDGs in order to
build back in a fairer way and avoid future health
crises. SDGs should help Member States' economies
recover and deliver the digital and green transitions
on the ground. However,
a recent study commissioned by the CoR
sounded the alarm about the lack of involvement of
regions and cities in national recovery plans, while in
many cases clear references to SDGs are missing,
reducing the opportunity for a common understanding of
the plans.
Ricardo Rio
(PT/EPP), rapporteur and Mayor of Braga, said: "
The SDGs almost disappeared from the EU narrative:
there is no overarching strategy and no effective
mainstreaming or coordination of SDGs in the
European Commission's internal governance. This is
all the more striking as in parallel the commitment
of local and regional authorities on SDGs kept
increasing. The preliminary results of our OECD-CoR
survey clearly show that local and regional
authorities are well engaged in a sustainable
recovery, based on SDGs. 40% of respondents have
been using them before the pandemic and now started
to use them to address the recovery, while 44% are
planning to do so to recover from COVID-19. This is
a big opportunity for all policy-makers to come
back stronger from this crisis and I will, together
with the OECD, actively advocate for it at EU level
."
The OECD estimates
that 65% of the 169 targets of the 17 SDGs cannot be
reached without involvement of, or coordination with,
local and regional authorities. Moreover,
the results of a new CoR-OECD joint survey
show that 60% of local and regional governments believe
that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to more conviction
that the SDGs can help take a more holistic approach
for recovery. Therefore, the CoR regrets that the SDGs
have progressively lost ground in the EU narrative,
with a lower profile in EU policy-making jeopardising
their chances of implementation by 2030.
CoR members urge European leaders to be ambitious and
consistent in their domestic and foreign policy agendas
and to declare with one clear purpose that the EU must
be a leader and visible champion in the implementation
of the SDGs at all governmental levels. The opinion
points out that Sustainable Development Goals should
provide a coherent framework for all EU policies and
help align the priorities of all funding programmes.
Nevertheless, sometimes the link between the UN
objectives and main European initiatives like the new
industrial strategy appear tenuous. Moreover, it calls
on the European Commission to use the next Annual
Sustainable Growth Strategy 2022 to formally
reintegrate SDGs into the European Semester, better
link SDGs and the
Recovery and Resilience Facility
(the cornerstone of Next Generation EU), and explicitly
affirm SDGs as a way for the EU to shape a sustainable
recovery.
Local and regional leaders ask the European Commission
to renew the
SDG multi-stakeholder platform
or create another dialogue platform with clout and
structured follow-up to foster expertise from all the
different stakeholders from public and private
institutions regarding the 2030 Agenda and to advise
the Commission directly.
The rapporteur Mr Rio delivered the call to prominent
EU policy makers already on Tuesday, when
he took the floor at the Brussels Economic
Forum 2021
, the flagship annual economic event of the European
Commission, alongside President Von der Leyen and
German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Background information:
The CoR and the OECD jointly carried out a survey
between May and Mid-June 2021 on SDGs as a framework
for COVID-19 recovery in cities and regions. The survey
included 86 responses from municipalities, regions and
intermediary entities in 24 EU countries, plus a few
other OECD & non-OECD countries. Preliminary
findings were presented on Tuesday during the fourth
edition of the
Cities and Regions for the SDGs roundtable
, a two-day online event that focused on the SDGs as a
framework for long-term COVID-19 recovery strategies in
cities and regions. The document is available
here
.
The CoR adopted a first opinion on "
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): a basis
for a long-term EU strategy for a sustainable
Europe by 2030
" in 2019 by rapporteur Arnoldas Abramavičius (LT/EPP)
Member of Zarasai District Municipal Council.
In November 2020 the European Commission published the
staff working document "
Delivering on the UN’s Sustainable Development
Goals – A comprehensive approach
".
Contact:
Matteo Miglietta
Tel. +32 (0)470 895 382
matteo.miglietta@cor.europa.eu