The European Union in Global Governance: Creating Capacity to Implement the UN Sustainable Development Goals

The EU and its member states are important principals and funders of a large number of international organizations, ranging from the United Nations to the Clean Technology Fund. The position of the European Union can be used to influence other international organizations to contribute more strongly to the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. These goals provide a common ground for global action until 2030 to deal with some of the major global challenges. The EU and its member states have committed to implementing the goals in Europe as well as globally. However, the situation is complicated by the contradictory nature of the SDGs. As with the concept of sustainable development in general, the goals aim to promote economic and social development while reducing the impact on the environment at the same time. The goals point to the importance of technological development as well as investments and trade to achieve this difficult mix. A great responsibility is delegated to national governments to devise strategies for implementation, while the goals point to the importance of good governance as a foundation for efficient strategies. The EU can mobilize great strength and expertise across policy areas, which gives the EU a unique opportunity to find synergies and to deal with conflicting goals, as well as providing analytical skills to point out workable strategies and, hence, to play a global leadership role. The paper will discuss some of the problems with the SDGs and ways for the EU to contribute to their improved implementation. It will also discuss some of the shortcoming of the international organizations in the implementation of the SDGs. Lastly, it will discuss possible reforms of the European Union to play a greater role in this area. The paper will highlight alternatives to further integration of the European foreign policies.