EU leaders signed on 7 June the New European Consensus on Development during the 11th edition of the annual European Development Days. The joint statement establishes new development goals and strategies for the European Union with poverty eradication within line of sight.
The agreement is a response to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted in September 2015 and which has set up the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to attain by 2030. It puts back to the agenda questions of ‘inclusivity, peace and prosperity, (…) the role of youth, women and the private sector’ in achieving development sustainability. The imperative for further cooperation with regional and local actors to better assess situations on the ground as well as the need to combine traditional development aid with other innovative resources are also stressed in the agreement.
Several lines of action are put forward with special attention given to the close linkage between issues which reinforce each other over time: humanitarian aid, displaced populations, climate change, gender disparity, human rights, sustainable energy, resource management, and peace and security. In particular, the overlap between Security and Development challenges has shown the urgency to promote the UN SDGs and the institutional and financial tools necessary to improve resilience mechanisms.
Facing an unprecedented series of natural disasters and political and economic upheavals, the Development-Security nexus has emerged as a crucial element in risk-based current approaches. With these goals in mind, the new European Consensus on Development aims at framing international standards and increasing synergies amongst its Member States in order to fill the gaps at the roots of insecurity and instability.
