CoR delegation concludes its participation in the High-Level Political Forum in New York with the first EU Voluntary Review.
Recognising the crucial role of local and regional governments for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the need to provide them adequate support were the key messages of the European Committee of the Regions to the United Nations’ High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development Goals in New York on 17-19 July. After having bilateral meetings with UN Secretary General António Guterres and Mayor of New York Eric Adams earlier this week, the CoR delegation led by President Vasco Cordeiro participated in the EU event on the European Union’s Voluntary Review on the fulfilment of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
As part of the follow-up of the 2030 Agenda and SDGs implementation, states are invited to present Voluntary National Reviews at the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development which is held at the beginning of July every year. For the first time this year, the European Commission has presented its EU Voluntary Review, presenting the added value work of the EU.
At the EU event held on the final day of the forum, President Cordeiro spoke alongside European Commissioners Jutta Urpilainen and Paolo Gentiloni, as well as lead representatives of the Spanish EU Council Presidency, the European Parliament and the European Economic and Social Committee.
“The European Committee of the Regions welcomes the first ever European Union Voluntary Review and the dialogue process it has generated. The commitment of EU regions and cities to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals is increasing year after year. We know that 65% of the SDGs targets cannot be achieved without the involvement of local and regional authorities. Political leadership at all levels and multilevel governance are among the top success factors for the localisation of the SDGs. The European Committee of the Regions will continue to advocate for a structured dialogue on SDGs implementation that further empowers and supports local and regional authorities“, President Cordeiro said.
ENVE Commission Chair Rafal Trzaskowski (PL/EPP), Mayor of Warsaw, said: “I am very satisfied with the participation of the CoR at the High–Level Political Forum; we have brought the efforts of EU regions and cities on localizing SDGs to the global level and stand ready to implement the partnerships with UN agencies. We call for an effective multilevel governance in all UN processes that formally recognizes the key role of subnational governments, following the example of the Biodiversity COP15. We offer our unique institutional expertise and propose to join the UN Advisory Group on Local and Regional Governments”.
Ricardo Rio (PT/EPP), Mayor of Braga and rapporteur for the CoR opinion on Progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, considered that throughout the High-Level Political Form it was clear to ensure “the full alignment of local and regional authorities with the United Nations priorities, may it be the Sustainable Development Goals, Climate Change, Migrations, the Safeguard of Democracy or the challenges of the Urban Agenda”. He stressed that, “just like in the SDGs (where nearly 65% of the goals can only be achieved with an active engagement of regions and cities), the new multilateralism approach requires opening a larger space to the participation of LRAs representatives in the United Nations framework, depositing high hopes in the proposals that shall be submitted to the Summit of the Future in 2024″.
These messages will be carried over to the 2023 SDG Summit, which will take place on 18-19 September 2023 in New York, marking the half-way point to the deadline set for achieving the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals.
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