In December 2022 European Commission addressed to the EU Legislative the report on the cultural dimension of sustainable development in EU actions.
The role of culture in sustainable development was emphasised by the Commission in the 2018 New European Agenda for Culture and committed to using it to help implement the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The Council’s Work Plan for Culture 2019-20225 was then amended in May 2020 to include ‘Culture as a driver for sustainable development’ as an additional priority. The Plan included an invitation to the Commission to present an action plan on the cultural dimension of sustainable development.
This report is the Commission’s response to the invitation. It advocates an EU policy approach on the cultural dimension of sustainable development that builds on a stronger and more consistent connection between cultural policies and sustainable development goals’ implementation across EU initiatives, programmes and actions and across different sectors.
It provides an overview of EU policies and programmes that reinforce the interplay between culture and sustainable development and identifies actions undertaken or planned by the Commission, with a view to propel culture as a driver or enabler of the UN 2030 Agenda.
The debate and results from MONDIACULT 2022 – the UNESCO conference on cultural policies and sustainable development held in Mexico on 28-30 September 2022 – have further inspired and informed discussions on the future of SDGs and created additional momentum for reflection on a more prominent role for culture in sustainable development strategies. This report contributes to this reflection process and builds on the ambitions of the conference’s Declaration for Culture.
