Home Grace O'SULLIVAN

I welcomed the approval of candidate status of Ukraine and Moldova for membership of the European Union by the Parliament. Unfortunately however the same decision was not granted to Georgia, which has been partially occupied by Russia since 2008. We look forward to welcoming these two countries into our European family with the benefits it brings. This membership process is also the EU’s strongest tool to encourage our friends and neighbours to align with EU values and principles and gives us the opportunity to aid them in anti-corruption and human rights initiatives.

I was happy to vote in favour of this report calling on the Commission to adopt a high-level EU 2030 Agenda Implementation Strategy. With only eight years to go to achieve the SDGs, and with the EU on track to meet only 15% of our SDG targets, a renewed political impetus is needed to ensure that the SDGs are put back at the top of the political agenda. This report outlines how the EU must improve its implementation of the SDGs by taking a whole of government approach and establishing robust governance, monitoring and financing structures as well as through strengthened multilateral cooperation. This text adopted will serve as the mandate for the European Parliament’s Delegation to this year’s High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. I will represent Greens/EFA Group on this Delegation and will push the EU to take on board the report’s recommendations.