The European Parliament adopted, by 541 votes to 96 with 29 abstentions, the resolution on the EU and the global development framework after 2015.
The resolution highlighted that globally, women and girls constitute a majority of those living in extreme poverty and gender equality and women’s rights are a necessary condition for the success of the post-2015 global development framework. Every day an estimated 800 women in the world die due to complications during pregnancy or childbirth. It recalled that the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo called for universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights which can be lifesaving.
Although the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have raised awareness of ending global poverty as an urgent challenge and a priority for global action, certain shortcomings of MDGs need to be fully addressed in the definition of the post-2015 framework.
MDGs: assessment and new challenges: recalling that, although the MDGs have made a profound difference in people’s lives, key issues such as human rights violations, inequalities, including gender inequality, armed conflicts and terrorism, climate change, food insecurity, migration, corruption, tax fraud and tax avoidance, unemployment, and financial and economic crises still pose extremely complex and interrelated challenges for the next decades. There is a need to find new development pathways that could lead to inclusive and sustainable development for all.
This new framework should respond effectively to these challenges and tackle other important issues such as respect for the dignity of every human being, justice, good governance, education, research and innovation, and the rights of women, children, young people and minorities.
Overall, assessments of the progress made in attaining the current MDGs showed that, in the new framework, a strong linkage between poverty eradication, fighting inequalities and the promotion of sustainable development, as well as a single and universal set of goals with differentiated approaches, are crucial.
Parliament stressed that mutual accountability and transparency at all levels should be the axis of the new development framework.
Strong cohesive EU position: Parliament called on the EU to play an active role in shaping a new global partnership which will mobilise action by all countries, including emerging economies, and all relevant stakeholders, including the private sector, civil society organisations, local authorities and national parliaments.
It is also called upon to adopt a strong, cohesive and unified position in the upcoming intergovernmental negotiations, taking into account the priorities stressed in this resolution. Parliament stressed that the new global framework should include the appropriate institutional architecture with clear guidelines for supervision of its implementation and that it should also address the complexities and the inter-linkages between the different parts of the future framework.
The resolution also considered that policy coherence for sustainable development (PCD) is a key tool for the implementation of the post-2015 framework. To this end, it called for the EU to ensure that the necessary guidelines, impact assessments and monitoring and reporting mechanisms make PCD a reality in the framework.
Main priority areas:
Poverty eradication and sustainable development: Parliament recalled that poverty eradication must remain the main priority of the global development agenda after 2015. Poverty eradication together with good governance, human rights-based approach and sustainable development should be the underlying themes of the new development framework addressing also the multi-dimensional aspects of poverty and inequality, which go beyond the lack of income. The resolution underlined the need for a target on ending extreme poverty at the level of USD 2 a day, if the framework is to be truly transformational.
Members recommended that support be given to state-building by means of increased general and/or sector-specific aid conditional on good governance criteria.
In an amendment adopted in plenary, Parliament stressed that in a largely globalised economy, labour’s bargaining power has been reduced through liberalisation, which jeopardises in return fulfilment of the rights listed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Decent Work Agenda. Accordingly, it urged the EU to frame its trade policy strategy in such a way as to maintain and protect high social and environmental standards, while discouraging any forms of social and environmental dumping.
Parliament stressed the need to promote sustainable development by balancing regional development, by promoting the development of smaller towns and cities and preventing the excessive growth of big cities.
Human rights- based approach: the post-2015 framework should ensure a human right-based approach, as well as the promotion of peaceful societies. Justice, good governance, democracy and the rule of law should also be addressed in the new agenda.
Parliament stressed the universality, indivisibility and interdependence of all human rights of all people, without discrimination on any grounds, with particular attention to the human rights of women and girls, including the promotion of universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights, as well as the protection and respect of the rights of migrants and minorities, including LGBTI people and people living with HIV. It also underlined the importance of respecting and promoting the rights of disabled people.
The EU is called upon to redouble efforts aimed at ensuring, in the upcoming inter-governmental negotiations, that the human rights-based approach (HRBA) and the right to development become the underpinning concepts of the post-2015 global development framework.
Conflict prevention, post-conflict, peace-building and promotion of durable peace: the post-2015 framework should reflect peace building and state building goals agreed in Busan. Special attention is required with regard to fragile states in the new framework. The promotion of peaceful societies is one of the priorities of the EU and that it is evolving as an important element of the new framework. However, there is a need to address the underlying drivers of conflict and fragility. The EU institutions are called upon to put in place more responsive procedures in post-conflict situations and adopt a strategy enabling development aid to serve security objectives as effectively as possible.
Climate change and disaster risk reduction: Parliament stated that climate change mitigation and adaptation needs to be effectively mainstreamed in the post-2015 global development. Special attention should be given to sustainable energy since it is crucial for climate change mitigation. The resolution emphasised the importance of including in the new framework: humanitarian assistance, capacity-building, prevention and bottom-up participatory measures to effectively reduce disaster risk and strengthen resilience.
Food security, nutrition, sustainable agriculture, land degradation, water and sanitation: Parliament welcomed the fact that food and nutrition security has emerged as a priority area for the new global development framework. They stressed the importance of addressing the linkages with improved productivity of sustainable agriculture and fisheries leading to reduced loss and waste of food, transparent management of natural resources and adaptation to climate change. It called for the need to go beyond food security and consider food as a basic human right, in order to be able to set a clear ‘Zero Hunger’ goal and to end the scandal of hunger by 2025. The resolution also underlined the importance of global good governance in preventing land grabbing by business consortiums and promoting the universal access to safe drinking water.
Health and education: Parliament called for the EU to focus on promoting equitable, universal and sustainable health protection in the new global framework. Preventing exclusion and discrimination of the most vulnerable groups with regard to health systems has been stressed. Parliament highlighted the huge importance of continuing to work on improving access to water, sanitation and hygiene as a cross-cutting issue that affects the attainment of other goals in the post-2015 agenda, including health, education and gender equality.
Members emphasised the need to enable access to all levels of quality education, in order to foster participatory citizenship and building of knowledge-based and innovative societies.
Central role of women in the new development framework: Members welcomed the fact that empowerment of women was recognised as a priority in the post-2015 development agenda. Furthermore, it is important to prioritise the elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls. It is crucial that the EU sets elimination of all harmful practices including child, early or forced marriage and female genital mutilation as one of the top priorities under the new framework.
Mobilising financial resources: the resolution urged Member States to meet their commitment to allocate at least 0.7% of GNI to Official Development Assistance (ODA), including at least 0.2% to Least Developed Countries (LDC) and other highly vulnerable states. The EU is called upon to take a coherent and comprehensive international approach to financing beyond 2015. Parliament reiterated the need to continue to work closely with other donors on developing further innovative financial mechanisms, such as the Financial Transaction Tax. It also reiterated its call to make combating corruption, money laundering, tax evasion and avoidance, tax havens, illicit flows of capital and harmful tax structures an overriding priority in financing development. It also recalled that developing countries have lost close to USD 6 trillion in illicit financial flows over the last decade, far exceeding ODA flows for the period.