The “United for Agenda 2030” conference, organised by the European Network of Political Foundations (ENoP) in cooperation with Foundation Max van der Stoel and Building Change, took place in Brussels on 29 January 2020. The event brought together a wide range of experts, political and civil society actors aiming to discuss paths towards transformative European action for the Sustainable Development Goals.

The conference commenced with a panel discussion on the multilevel European approach to SDG implementation, involving speakers from civil society organisations and the European Parliament.

Maria Spyraki, Member of the European Parliament in the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy appealed to citizens to become more engaged in the SDG implementation.

Ingeborg Niestroy, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Sustainable Studies, presented some of her findings from the EU report on SDG implementation.

Patricia Heidegger, Director Global Policies and Sustainability at the European Environmental Bureau, argued that while that is important to engage civil society, it is up to decision-makers to set the targets and show political will in the advancement of the SDG implementation.

The panel discussion was followed by presentations by Concord and Building Change on good practices of advocacy for SDG implementation.

Lonne Poissonnier from Concord gave an insight into SDG multi-stakeholder engagement, while Marije ten Have and Luuk Mevis from Building Change shared their experience in developing an SDG initiative, called “Adopt an SDG” aimed at engaging Dutch parliamentarians in the national monitoring of the SDG implementation.  The event concluded with two interactive workshops where speakers and guests brainstormed together on how the advance the SDG implementation on EU member state level and how to achieve better Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development (PCSD).