As a member of SDG Watch Europe, Culture Action Europe (CAE) send recommendations for the Council Conclusion on the EC Communication. Council Conclusions to be adopted in June 2017 under the Maltese EU Presidency represent an important opportunity for EU member states to address the lack of European leadership and ambition shown to date regarding the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. A year and a half has passed since the 2030 Agenda was first adopted by all UN member states in New York. Unfortunately, there has been little evidence of any real European political momentum to support the implementation of this vitally important sustainable development agenda, either in terms of EU internal or external policy-making and action. The lack of coordination between, and timely action on the part of the EU and its member states is difficult to understand in light of the failures of today’s policies to tackle poverty, and their direct contribution to rising inequality, the destruction of the environment, threats to health, the concentration of wealth and political power in fewer and fewer hands, and the disaffection of many people across Europe with the European Union, its institutions and policies.
On the policy coherence level, CAE recommends ensuring coherence with the perspective of culture as a transversal element of sustainable development.
