Fremskridt med gennemførelsen af målene for bæredygtig udvikling

CoR rapporteur on SDGs, Ricardo Rio, participated in an EU-UN Dialogue with representatives from the European Commission, the UN and the CoR to discuss SDGs localisation and their financing.

CoR rapporteur, Ricardo Rio, and CoR member (CIVEX) Christophe Rouillon, participated in the OECD Urban Days and presented the views of the CoR to accelerate action on SDGs localisation, and lessons learnt from city partnerships.

On 27 March, the CoR and the EU Joint Research Centre are co-organising the kick-off meeting of the JRC project: CATALYSTS2030 - Implementation of the SDGs in the regions - from monitoring to action. This project is financed by the European Parliament and will gather 20 regions.

The CoR participated in the work of the Council Voluntary Taskforce on Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development. This taskforce is led by the Slovak delegation and has drafted together with 21 other national delegations, as well as the OECD, the EESC and the CoR recommandations for an EU SDGs governance. These recommandations have now been transmitted to the Hungarian Presidency and has been presented during a Council Working Party meeting in view of the next Council Conclusions on SDGs to be adopted on 17 December.

On 11 October, the CoR was invited to present its position and recommandations at the meeting of the Council Working Party on the Agenda 2030. The Council will then adopt its Conclusions on Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development on 17 December. CoR Vice President Markku Markkula and CIVEX Chair Patrick Molinoz participated and discussed with national delegates, notably on the need to monitor SDGs at a more granular level to better assess and implement the EU transition.

On 5 July, following two dialogues organised the day before on SDGs localisation, the CoR presented at the Council Working Party meeting its recommendation to better equip local and regional authorities to implement SDGs at their level.

On 4 July, the European Committee of the Regions organised an EU Dialogue on SDGs at regional and local level, focusing on the issue of EU financing. Several services of the European Commission, such as the Secretariat General, DG REFORM and DG REGIO took part in the dialogue with CoR Vice-President Markku Markkula and Greens Member Jaromir Beranek, representatives of LRAs and their associations. The UN and representatives of member states also took part. Recommendations on financing SDGs territorialisation were then presented at the Council Working Party the next day.
This EU dialogue was also followed by an EU-UN Dialogue on SDGs localisation, focusing on development cooperation.

CoR President will discuss SDGs localisation, progress and monitoring at a High Level Conference on SDGs, organised by the European Commission and the Belgian Presidency: On track to 2030? Delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals in the EU. The Queen, Commissioner Gentiloni, Belgian Minister will participate as well. The CoR shares its request to have regional monitoring inlcuded in the EU annual monitoring of SDGs to have a meaningful assessment of SDGs progress in the EU.

On 7 June, the CoR took part in the meeting of the Council Working Party on the Agenda 2030. It shared the conclusions of its twin SDGs events which took place on 4 June in the CoR: EU Dialogue on Financing SDGs territorial; and UN-EU Policy Dialogue on SDGs localisation.
The CoR received positive feedback from several national delegates and the Belgian presidency.

Following the results of the latest joint survey of the CoR-OECD-SDSN on SDGs localisation, financing was identified as a key challenge for local and regional authorities. Accordingly, the CoR will organise a dialogue with the European Commission and the EIB on this issue, involving CoR members and territorial associations to promote EU financing available options and identify concrete bottlenecks. The event will take place on 4 June and will be complementary with an half day event on a EU-UN Dialogue on SDGs localisation

On 29 May, the CoR participated in the OECD roundtable on SDGs co-organised with the Basque Country. Session 1 was especially useful to contribute to the ongoing work of the CoR for the Opinion of artificial intelligence in public administration. Session 2 focused on financing. CIVEX Commission chair/Vice-President of Bourgogne Franche Comté, Patrick Molinoz, participated in Session 3 on decentralised cooperation.
The next day, the CoR participated in the steering committee meeting of the OECD Pilot Project on a territorial approach to SDGs.

The CoR co-organised the final event of this pilot project gathering 10 regions, the JRC, DG REGIO and Eurostat. The project is supported by the European Parliament and will help better integrate regions in the EU SDGs monitoring. Vice-President Markku Markkula represented the CoR and stressed the importance of the EU support to regions to ensure a timely implementation of SDGs in 2030.

The Council of the EU is set to adopt Conclusions specifically on SDGs localisation, recognising the importance of regions and cities contribution to SDGs implementation, as well as the CoR added-value. The Conclusions will also renew the call of the Council to the European Commission to have a dedicated overarching strategy on SDGs as well as a multistakeholders' platform on SDGs

CoR Vice-President, Markku Markkula (FI/EPP), and Christophe Rouillon (FR/PES) participated in the meeting of the Council Working Party on the Agenda 2030. They presented the CoR Resolution on SDGs adopted on 10 October, as well as CoR work on decentralised cooperation to implement SDGs.
This is the third time in less than 5 months that the CoR is invited to share its positions on SDGs localisation at the Council. Its recommandations will feed in Council Conclusions on SDGs localisation to be adopted by 27 or 30 November.

CoR rapporteur, Ricardo Rio (PT/EPP), participated in SDSN-EESC workshop on the 2023 Europe Sustainable Development Report 5th Edition. This is an alternative SDGs monitoring report. Mr Rio presented the perspective of regions and cities on SDGs monitoring as well as the results of the CoR-OECD-SDSN survey we carried out this year.

CoR Vice-President Isilda Gomes (PT/PES) and member Kata Tutto (HU/PES) participated in the High-level conference of the Spanish Presidency: Boosting the Localization of the 2030 Agenda organised in Madrid on 27 October. Vice-President Gomes made the opening and member Kata Tutto participated in a panel on SDGs localisation in the EU. They both delivered recommandations for the EU institutions to better support regions and cities in their efforts to implement SDGs. Ultimately these debates will feed the Council Conclusions being prepared by the Spanish Presidency on SDGs localisation

On 11 October, the CoR, together with Eurocities, CEMR and Regions4 are organising a stock-taking event on SDGs. SDGs rapporteur, Ricardo Rio who is also the Mayor of Braga, Portugal, Diana Pretzell, First Deputy Mayor of Mannheim, Germany will be among the speakers. Moreover, Gabriel Hernandez Castanares, Director General on the acceleration of the implementation of SDGs will give a statement on behalf of the Spanish Presidency.

On 8 September, for the second time during the Spanish Presidency, the CoR - Thomas Wobben, Director of Legislative Works - participated in a meeting of the Council Working Party. He presented the European Week of Regions and Cities and how it helps the CoR to implement the SDGs at its level. He also gave the CoR recommendations on SDGs monitoring, in particular on regional monitoring and the JRC project REGIONS2030

On 25 July, rapporteur Ricardo Rio spoke at the Council Working Party on the drafting process of the EU Voluntary Review and reported on the CoR participation at the HLPF as well as CoR recommendations to go forward.

At the UN High Level Political Forum, the European Commission will organise a side event on 19 July to present the European Voluntary Review. All institutions will be invited to take part, including the CoR.

The region of Flanders will participate at the UN HLPF and organise a side event on 11 July to present its work on SDGs implementation. It invited rapporteur Rio to participate.

Following their survey on the state of play of SDGs in regions and cities, the CoR and the OECD will organise a roundtable on SDGs to present their results and discuss the EU Voluntary Review.

Rapporteur Ricardo Rio participated in the EESC event on SDGs leadership together with representatives of the Spanish Presidency, MEP Barry Andrews and the European Commission Secretariat General.

The European Parliament will adopt a report on SDGs in June ahead of the UN High Level Political Forum in July 2023.
The deadline for amendments was 30 March for adoption by DEVE and ENVI in May. Among the 470 amendments tabled, a number of amendments refer to the CoR, SDGs localisation, the work of regions and cities and the position of the CoR opinion.

The CoR and the region of North Rhine Westphalia are organising an event on Localising SDGs 2.0 - Voluntary Local Reviews and the EU Voluntary Review. The event will feature cities presenting their Voluntary Local Reviews (including the Mayor of Bonn) and leading regions and cities on SDGs such as North Rhine Westphalia and Helsinki region. There will also be an EU panel discussing the EU Voluntary Review.

The CoR together with the OECD and SDSN launched a survey to map out the efforts of regions and cities on SDGs in Europe. The results will be used to convey needs and expectations of regions and cities to higher levels of government. Most of all the results will help map an interactive map to be included in the EU Voluntary Review to be presented at the UN in July 2023.

In its opinion on the European Semester adopted on 25 January, the European Parliament REGI Committee requested a better integration of SDGs and recalled the key role of regions and cities in their implementation. The European Parliament ECON Committee is leading on this file with adoption on 23 January

The CoR provided the European Commission with local and regional good practices for each SDGs for the annexes of the document. The CoR also provided a short paragraph on its work for the main document and will provide beginning of February a map of cities and regions localising SDGs to also be featured in the main documents. This comes in addition to regular exchanges with the European Commission as well as the opinion on SDGs.

On 29 November, the CoR hosted the kickoff meeting of the JRC REGIONS2030 project. This project is led by the JRC with DG REGIO and Eurostat with the support of the European Parliament. The CoR also supports the project. 10 regions will work with the JRC to help better monitor SDGs at regional level. Thomas Wobben moderated the event and CoR Vice-President Markku Markkula made the concluding remarks.

SDGs rapporteur Ricardo Riohas been invited by the Czech Presidency to contribute to the EU Voluntary Review during a meeting of the Council Working Party on the 2030 Agenda.

On 27 October, SDGs rapporteur Ricardo Rio met Matthias de Moor, General Representative of Flanders to the EU to discuss Volunary National Reviews, data availability and the role of the Council in boosting the SDGs implementation in the EU. Flanders is an observer in the Council Working Party on the 2030 Agenda.

On 6 October, rapporteur Ricardo Rio was invited to the ENVE Commission external meeting in Milan to discuss SDGs state of play and gather views from ENVE members.

On 4 October, Ricardo Rio, Mayor of Braga, third largest city of Portugal, and rapporteur of the European Committee of the Regions on SDGs, organised an online stakeholders' consultation meeting.
Among the 88 registered participants, representatives from the European Commission Secretariat General, OECD, EU Joint Research Centre, CEMR, Tallinn, North Rhine Westphalia, Espoo, Helsinki and URBACT took the floor to discuss the coming EU Voluntary Review and SDGs localisation in the EU.

Ricardo Rio met deputy head of unit Laia Pinos Matero and Lucian Parvulescu to discuss the implementation of SDGs, SDGs localisation and the possible contribution of the CoR in the EU Voluntary Review.
They welcomed the work of the CoR on SDGs and agreed for the CoR contribution to the EU VR.

During an exchange of views on the Opinion on SDGs, Aneil Singh from the European Commission DG ECFIN discusses with members of the integration of SDGs within the European Semester as well as links with the RRF.