From MDGs to SDGs: An unprecedented year for international development - Main contents

A new phase of discussions in New York

I am in New York this week, at the start of the 'Intergovernmental negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda' - the first discussion ahead of the big UN Summit on Post-2015 due to take place in September, where the final framework and new goals will be put in place.

This year the international community is focused on bringing together the follow-up to the 2010 Summit on the Millennium Development Goals and the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) into a single 'post-2015' process that will enable us to deliver on the twin challenges of poverty eradication and sustainable development.

We are now at a crucial juncture. Preparations are also taking place for the Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa in July, where the international community will look at how it can finance its work on development going forward. And in Brussels, to help inform negotiations, we will shortly publish a new Commission Communication on a Global Partnership for poverty eradication and sustainable development after 2015. This Communication will present our vision for the new global partnership, outlining a set of principles and proposing policy measures to be pursued by all countries, according to their respective capabilities.

Of course, the world is a very different place in 2015 to what it was in 2000. We can no longer focus only on eradicating poverty; today’s challenges are much more inter-related and we have to make sure that we achieve sustainable development in all of its three dimensions: environmental, social and economic.

That’s why the new Post 2015 Framework, and the Sustainable Development Goals, will be more ambitious, far-reaching and universal. We want to see a new set of SDGs that are underpinned by human rights and designed to end poverty, transform lives, and protect the planet. The post-2015 agenda must also be fully coherent and supportive of climate objectives, since this December in Paris will see the most important Climate Change Conference for several years.

I am proud to say that the EU has been a leading voice in the Post-2015 process right from the start. Council Conclusions, agreed in December, reaffirmed that the EU and its Member States remain strongly committed to ensuring that the post-2015 agenda provides a comprehensive follow-up to Rio+20 and addresses the structural causes of poverty, inequality, climate change, and environmental degradation.

Achieving an ambitious and universal post-2015 development agenda, backed up with credible and proportionate means of implementation, is one of my top priorities for the coming months. I want to ensure that the EU remains at the forefront of the fight to eradicate poverty and to achieve sustainable development at this fascinating and unparalleled time.