In 2015 the European Commission and member states committed themselves to achieve the 2030 Agenda, including the 17 SDGs in 2030. Since then a lot is said, less is done. SDG Watch Europe and many civil society groups with us, asked for a concrete Plan of Implementation to achieve those goals. This week, 3,5 years later, shortly before the mandate of this Commission ends, a long awaited reflection paper on the Sustainable Development Goals was published.
We deeply regret that the paper stays very vague and does not contain any concrete plan, targets or timeline. Five years after the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the EU is still in the phase of “Reflection”, without have a plan of implementation on the SDGs, which are quite concrete in targets.
Claiming that sustainability is in the” DNA” of Europe and that we are global frontrunners in sustainable development, is not only self-congratulatory but factually wrong. On too many SDGs, the EU and its Members States can demonstrate only insufficient success or even regression.
In reality, the EU has one of the world’s worst ecological footprints and CO2 emissions per capita.
Read the full reaction from SDG Watch Europe here:
https://www.sdgwatcheurope.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/reaction-on-Reflection-paper-SDGs.pdf