EU and Member States release joint summary progress report on implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
On Friday 10 May 2019, the Joint Synthesis Report (JSR) titled 'Supporting the Sustainable Development Goals across the world: The 2019 Joint Synthesis Report of the European Union and its Member States' was published. The JSR is a summary report of progress made by the European Union and its Member States in promoting and supporting implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in partnership with developing countries and within the framework of the European Consensus on Development. The Consensus committed the EU and Member States to produce this joint report every four years, starting in 2019.
Following the release of the Joint Synthesis Report, EU Member States will formulate a response to this report in the form of Council conclusions, and both - together with the European Commission Sustainable Development Reflection Paper, and the Eurostat SDG Progress report - will serve as a basis for the EU's reporting to the July 2019 United Nations High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in New York. In the autumn, it will also help guide the next Commissioner in charge of Development Cooperation to set priorities for the next five years.
In response to the release of the Joint Synthesis Report, and in line with the views expressed by many civil society organisations across the European Union, SOLIDAR considers that sustainable development should become an overarching objective of the EU’s strategic priorities. This requires ambitious action to address economic and social inequalities, climate change, and the loss of biodiversity – among other major challenges - within Europe and globally.
The strategic agenda must not include objectives which work against sustainable development and should balance economic, social, environmental and economic dimensions, in line with the principles of Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development. The EU needs to take this unique opportunity to move Europe in a new direction, ensuring a fair and sustainable economic transition. SOLIDAR thus calls on political leaders to build together a better Europe that prioritises the well-being of people and the planet in the long-term over short-term economic interests. Since the setting of previous EU priorities, the world has adopted a transformational agenda. In that framework, the EU is clearly the only group that has the ambition and courage to take this forward and should guide policy leaders in that direction.
