Side Event: Halfway to SDGs implementation: the Balkans perspectives
While the needs to accelerate the pace of development, advance European integration, foster the transition to a green economy, and enhance capacities for sustainability-driven policies are widely recognized in the Balkans, implementing national SDGs can add impetus to ongoing transformation processes. Yet, halfway to Agenda 2030, it can be said that the Balkan countries are making only modest progress towards achieving the Global Goals. In this perspective, some interesting differences with Western European countries are observed. Understanding the process dynamics and inherent challenges and opportunities in the Balkan region is crucial. This will allow us to put them in a broader European context and benchmark policy approaches to SDGs implementation and performances of countries.
Bringing the sustainability perspective into the national context is also vital as regards rethinking underlying ‘growth-based’ development models and the whole idea of catching up with Western Europe. Facing multiple crises (economic, demographic, social, political, and ecological) could often tempt a country to search for short-term solutions to pressing problems, ignoring sustainability considerations. However, this approach, which focuses on the present, often results in missed opportunities in the long term. Against this background, reinforcing the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs in the Balkan countries could be seen not only as a way of keeping the momentum and guiding the regional processes in the right direction but also as a key factor for strengthening integration and stability in Europe, in a broader perspective.
Sofia University; POLIS University; Co-PLAN; Western Balkan Network on Territorial Governance; Taskforce on Sustainable Development Goals; River Cities Network.
