title: EU budget reform: opportunities and challenges for Global Sustainable Development
Creators: name: Hackenesch, Christine
name: Bergmann, Julian
name: Keijzer, Niels
name: Koch, Svea
Publisher: name: German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE)
publisherIdentifier: https://ror.org/01t3zke88
publisherIdentifierScheme: ROR
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: 2030 Agenda
subject: Deutsche Entwicklungspolitik
subject: Europäische Entwicklungspolitik
subject: German Development Policy
subject: European Development Policy
subject: 2030 Agenda

description: With the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), the EU will define not only the
 financial but also the political priorities until 2030. Which political objectives the EU
 intends to pursue in the future will therefore be a key issue during the MFF negotiations.
 The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals
 (SDGs), which the EU played a key role in shaping, should guide this debate. <br> In
 terms of EU domestic policy, the 2030 Agenda should help the European budget be more
 strongly tuned towards socially disadvantaged groups, reduce the EU’s environmental
 footprint and promote sustainable economic growth. This, in turn, would enable the MFF to
 bolster public support for Europe. In terms of EU foreign relations, the 2030 Agenda
 requires the EU to not only focus on short-term security and migration policy interests
 but to allocate resources in the budget for supporting long-term sustainable development.
 This would allow the EU to position itself as a frontrunner for sustainable development –
 internationally as well as towards industrialised, emerging and developing countries.
 <br> Two questions are central to the role of the 2030 Agenda in the next MFF: Where does
 the EU have the biggest deficits with respect to implementing the 2030 Agenda and the
 SDGs? And in which areas can the MFF make important contributions? We make five proposals
 on how to include the 2030 Agenda into the next MFF. These proposals complement one
 another and should be followed in parallel: <br> (1) Embed the principles of the 2030
 Agenda in the MFF: Individual principles of the 2030 Agenda, such as Leave no one behind,
 universality and policy coherence for sustainable development, call on the EU to take
 the SDGs into consideration not only in its foreign but also domestic policies, for
 example in agricultural or structural funds. Moreover, these principles require the EU to
 reduce the negative impact of EU policies on third countries and to promote positive
 synergies. <br> (2) Assign the SDGs to individual headings: The MFF should assign the
 global SDGs to individual headings and set minimum criteria for those SDGs and targets
 that each heading should contribute to. All headings should promote the three dimensions
 of sustainability – social, environmental and economic. <br> (3) Mainstream
 sustainability principle: The principle of sustainability should be mainstreamed across
 all headings, e.g. the current climate mainstreaming, should be supplemented by
 objectives for social and economic sustainability. <br> (4) In heading IV (foreign
 relations), the EU should align its strategies for bilateral cooperation with the
 partners’ SDG strategies. In addition, three to four thematic flagship programmes should
 be created for cooperation with countries of all income groups, such as in the areas of
 urbanisation, inequality or climate change. <br> (5) Cross-cutting issues: The successor
 to the Horizon 2020 programme should invest more in research on sustainability. EU Impact
 Assessments should take greater account of the social and environmental dimensions of
 sustainability. The next MFF should set clear guidelines for sustainable procurement.
description: Briefing Paper, 4/2018