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Cultural dimensions of sustainable development – council resolution, amendment and working group of eu experts
Description of the policy/measure
The eu and its member states are committed to implementing the united nations’ 2030 agenda for sustainable development, including with respect to culture. in november 2019 the council adopted a resolution on the cultural dimensions of sustainable development, under the finnish presidency of the european union: eur-lex - 42019y1206(01) - en - eur-lex (europa.eu) in may 2020 the council amended its work programme for culture to prioritise the sdgs, and invited the commission to convene a working group of eu member states experts on the cultural dimension of sustainable development: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/txt/pdf/?uri=uriserv:oj.c_.2020.193.01.0020.01.eng the working group began meeting in 2021, to the following mandate finalised by the cultural affairs committee: https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/st-6161-2020-init/en/pdf in 2021 the commission published a monitoring report on progress towards the sdgs in an eu context. prepared by eurostat, this report includes 10 references to culture and 7 to unesco: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/3217494/12878705/ks-03-21-096-en-n.pdf/8f9812e6-1aaa-7823-928f-03d8dd74df4f?t=1623741433852
2005 Convention Monitoring Framework Goal(s)
Area(s) of Monitoring
Results achieved
The working group of eu member states experts on the cultural dimension of sustainable development, held under the open method of coordination (omc), was convened by the commission in 2021. the group held its first three meetings in january, may and june 2021, with a high rate of participation (over 20 member states represented) and two elected co-chairs including the outgoing head of division for culture at the german commission for unesco. at these meetings, the commission presented work in progress in other omc groups under the council work plan for culture: on high quality architecture, on strengthening cultural heritage resilience for climate change, and on gender equality, as well as from relevant research dimensions under horizon europe – cluster 2 “culture, creativity and inclusive society”. further information was shared to align the work of the omc with other relevant work at eu level, such as the new european bauhaus, the inter-service group on culture and the ongoing preparation of the eu quadrennial report to unesco on the 2005 convention on cultural diversity. an exchange was also organised with cultural and creative sector representatives from the eu’s voices of culture dialogue on culture and the sdgs (described separately in this report). unesco representatives attended both meetings and proactively kept the omc group involved in their latest activities. a close cooperation with unesco is thus underway and will continue to feed the work of the group. next steps are: - ongoing collection of examples, both at member states’ level and at sectorial level of cultural policies/projects, on how culture has reinforced the capacity to address sdgs and can be usefully integrated in national strategies for sustainable development. - analysis of reporting tools that are relevant to better measure and assess the interplay between culture and sustainable development in the wider international context (such as the culture 5 2030 thematic indicators and the implementation of the 2005 unesco convention by eu member states). - exploring actions and synergies between national and eu levels, as forms of policy cooperation, also extracted from the ongoing analysis of the vnrs (voluntary national reviews) related process. this omc group is due to complete its work in 2022.