## SUGGESTIONS

The Committee on International Trade calls on the Committee on Budgets, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into its report:

## Recommendations

1. Provided that a new and comprehensive external action instrument is agreed by the co- legislators, its title should explicitly mention ‘Trade’ and read for instance ‘Neighbourhood, Development, Trade and International Cooperation Instrument’; 2. Welcomes increased appropriations for actions under heading six, ‘Neighbourhood and the World’, in the Commission’s proposal for the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework (MFF) and calls for the proportionate increase (of 30 %) of the resources dedicated to international trade within that section and for these appropriations to be earmarked specifically for trade; 3. Emphasises that the purpose of the MFF is to implement policy; welcomes, in this context, the fact that the ambitious Trade for All strategy outlined a values-based trade policy approach for the Union, including fair and ethical trade principles, and calls for an MFF 2021-2027 that provides sufficient funding, and for the political and administrative support for the further development of the Union’s trade policy in support of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), by means of coherent strategies; is concerned by the lack of a clear and visible commitment to that end in the MFF proposals; stresses that proper account must be taken of the objectives of the SDGs in order to create sustainable economic growth and stability, employment and the sustainable development of the European Union and of third countries, particularly in the developing world; recalls that the implementation of the SDGs concerns the EU’s internal and external policies; requests, therefore, the mainstreaming of the SDGs into all EU policies, including trade policy, and initiatives of the next MFF; emphasises that the contribution to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda must be used as the benchmark for policy success; whereas special attention should be paid to the provision of sufficient good-quality food and clean water and the building of additional wastewater disposal facilities in order to deliver on SDGs 2 and 6; draws attention, furthermore, to the scale and implications of energy poverty in developing countries and demands additional action to reduce energy poverty in line with SDG 7, in particular in remote rural areas in off-grid energy regions; stresses that funding for Aid for Trade initiatives should be increased; 4. Emphasises the need to maintain in the future external financial instruments architecture the flexibility applied in existing instruments, such as the Partnership Instrument, for the financing of trade-related tasks such as Domestic Advisory Groups (DAGs), and calls for an increase in the amounts available for such flanking measures; notes that one of the objectives of the Union’s external instruments is public diplomacy in order to build trust and understanding in non-EU countries with regard to EU policies; stresses that civil society engagement is of the utmost importance, and recognises the importance of DAGs as powerful tools for the correct implementation of trade partnership agreements; nevertheless notes with concern that they are under-budgeted and suffer from a lack of capacity, in particular in third countries, and calls, therefore, for higher allocations to

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