In preparation for the European elections in 2019, IDDRI worked with two coalitions of European think tanks, specialising in the policy debate in Brussels and in several Member States, to produce a list of priority recommendations on sustainable development for the renewed European institutions. These concern the future challenges that will face the EU’s environmental policies and those of its Member States, the alignment of key sectoral policies such as agriculture or energy with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement, and EU external action in the fields of diplomacy, international development and security.
In October 2018, two high-level events organised in Brussels provided an opportunity to present recommendations to the MEPs, whose work until the 2019 elections was supposed to structure key reforms such as that of the Common Agricultural Policy. They demonstrated the capacity of IDDRI and its partners to raise awareness among actors in Brussels about the pivotal role of sustainable development in the future of Europe.
Launched by the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP), the Think2030 coalition brought together the main think tanks on national and European sustainable development policies and presented recommendations to the European Parliament on 18 October. Progress made by Europe on environment and sustainable development comes up against the need to radically change our consumption models, which inevitably strikes the core of a Europe built as a common market. Europe therefore needs to adjust the very foundations of its construction if it is to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
In the framework of the European Think Tanks Group (ETTG), IDDRI welcomed on 17 October at the European Parliament, at the invitation of the Committee on Development (represented by Linda McAvan), Bill Gates and Federica Mogherini, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs. This conference highlighted the key role of financing for development in the partnership between Europe, the world’s leading donor, and the other parts of the world, especially Africa, which should be integrated into a foreign policy that supports the ambitious implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development rather than just controlling migration. These recommendations will be used in 2019 to question the different parties during the electoral campaign, then the commissioners-designate, on the importance they give to sustainable development in the European project.
