IPU Governing Council: Reports on recent IPU specialized meetings

Friday, 27 October 2015
Regional Seminar on the Sustainable Development Goals

for the
Parliaments of Central and Eastern Europe

Talking points

Augustin-Constantin MITU

Vice-President of the Senate of Romania

Mr. President,

Dear colleagues,

• In 2015, the parliaments of Central and Eastern Europe met in Bucharest to discuss concrete steps to implement the SDGs. Following up on the conclusions of this event, the Romanian Parliament and the IPU jointly organized a second regional Seminar on the SDGs, in Bucharest, on 18 and 19 April 2016.
• The seminar was held in conjunction with several events marking the 125^th anniversary of the Romanian IPU Group, including the adoption by the Romanian Parliament of a Declaration on the SDGs, the first of its kind among IPU members.
• The meeting was attended by parliamentary delegations from Austria, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Poland, Republic of Moldova, the European Parliament and Romania, and by experts from IPU partner organizations, including UNDP, UNEP, UNISDR, UNESCO, and the Regional Environmental Center.      
• Participants addressed SDG 16, the “good governance Goal”, while highlighting its particular relevance for parliaments. They discussed how parliaments could mainstream and institutionalize the set of SDGs so as to capture the synergies and build coherence at policy level, and invited parliaments to ensure that risk reduction and environmental risk were part of the national sustainable development strategies.
• They recommended parliamentary actions to promote education for sustainable development as a catalyst force towards achieving the SDGs, and stressed the need for parliaments to provide an enabling framework for dialogue and coordination among the various SDG stakeholders within the society;
• IPU’s regional approach of the SDGs and Romania’s increasing involvement as a regional parliamentary hub in the area of sustainable development were most welcomed and appreciated.

Dear colleagues,

• Let me take this opportunity to reiterate the crucial importance of a strong parliamentary engagement with the SDGs, and the need for us to make use of all available instruments in this area, including the IPU’s SDG Self-Assessment Toolkit.
• I invite you, dear colleagues, to consider further steps, such as the creation of specialized parliamentary bodies; I can inform you that the Romanian Parliament has a Sub-Committee for Sustainable Development, and, more recently, initiated a consultative council allowing for the participation of NGOs;
• Last but not least, a political document on SDGs, adopted by parliament – as recommended by the IPU – can set priorities, provide valuable guidelines for all relevant institutions in our countries, while ensuring the necessary continuity of parliamentary engagement with the SDGs across political parties and legislatures.

Thank you very much for your attention.