2030 Agenda: SDG Watch Europe principles to integrate sustainability in the EU budget

In 2015, the EU and its Member States signed up to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. If implemented in a truly transformative way, this global Agenda will promote a transition towards a more sustainable future for the people and for the planet.         

The EU has now to re-think the manner (and the substance) of EU decision making, including the design of the EU budget.

With the European Commission’s proposal for a new EU budget cycle, starting in 2021, expected by the end of 2017, SDG Watch Europe has put forward eight sustainability principles to ensure coherence in future internal and external EU spending and to put sustainability at the heart of the European project:

1. The EU budget shall work for the people and with the people, with greater transparency, respectful of diversity and meaningful participation of the citizens.
2. The EU budget shall strengthen the common European values, in Europe and globally.
3. The EU budget shall increase wellbeing and contribute to decreasing inequality and social exclusion on all levels.
4. The EU budget shall take a holistic approach and support systems change and promote innovation, which is required for the transition to sustainability and building a circular economy.
5. The EU budget shall serve a diversified and resilient economy and society, where the full potential of all communities, organisations and businesses of any size is fully achieved.
6. The EU budget shall serve the public good.
7. The EU budget shall contribute to decreasing total environmental pressure to return to within planetary boundaries.
8. The EU budget shall not contribute to the shifting of environmental pressures in time and space.

The principles, presented during an event held at the SOLIDAR premises on 31 May 2017, are the result of a broad CSO consultation.  

SOLIDAR is an active member of SDG Watch Europe and supports its call for the new EU budget cycle to become a key driver of sustainable development in all its four key dimensions: social, environmental, economic and governance.