| dc.description.abstract | The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) encompasses a new global framework to guide sustainable development until 2030. National governments are primary responsible for achieving the seventeen global goals and are urged to mobilize sufficient resources for implementation. The European Union has committed itself to support its member states in their implementation efforts, especially through the European Commission’s (Commission) own investment portfolio. For the Commission to support member states in this endeavour, this study argues that is it important to know to what extent and how member states themselves are committed to include the SDGs into their financial infrastructures. Therefore, this study investigates how member states have used public finance schemes to reach these new policy goals. In particular, it captures the roles and activities of national parliaments as well as of the national ministries of finance in this regard. Analysing member states’ national voluntary review reports for the SDGs, this study presents a comparative overview of where member states stand in the process of imbedding the SDGs in their national budget planning and evaluation processes. Furthermore, this study also presents an overview of the latest Commission’s responses towards the SDGs, in particularly its new European Sustainable Development Investment Programme, presented in January 2020. This study concludes that both at the national and EU level, room for improvement exists to increase coherence between independent SDG financing strategies. To exemplify, much money is reallocated both on the EU and national level to fund the green transition, but less attention is paid for the societal implications of his transition. Evaluating both the national level and the EU level, this study presents four recommendations to dynamize the multi-level governance of SDG finance. First, the Commission is recommended to adopt as soon as possible a new EU 2030 strategy and to align this new sustainable development strategy with the SDGs. Second, the Commission is recommended to include the SDGs in its economic monitoring processes, in particular the European Semester. Third, the Commission is recommended to align the assessment criteria for funding programmes under the five European Structural and Investment Funds with the SDGs. Fourth, the Commission is recommended to identify which SDG targets (with a transboundary character) are suffering mostly from the funding gap and to adjust its funding programmes to tackle these specific SDG targets. | |
