Open letter: Seven EU-level organisations call on the new European Commission to prioritise development cooperation
Dr Ursula von der Leyen
President of the European Commission
Rue de la Loi 200, 1049 Brussels, Belgium
Brussels, 4th July 2024
Dear President von der Leyen,
On behalf of seven EU-level organisations working on international cooperation, human rights, education, health and European affairs, and representing over 2600 CSOs across Europe and beyond, we would like to congratulate you on your nomination for a second term as President of the European Commission.
In your 2023 State of the Union address, you expressed the EU’s commitment to achieving greater equality in the global distribution of power and wealth. In light of an erosion of multilateralism, it is certainly in the EU’s interest to build trust with its partners by working towards global wellbeing and stability. We therefore urge you to show leadership in this area and genuinely champion sustainable development and global inequality reduction. No countries or people should be left behind during the much-needed economic, social and environmental transitions. It is crucial that the EU respects the commitments it has undertaken while basing its external action on respect for human dignity, human rights, equality and solidarity. The Commission must strengthen its reputation vis-à-vis partner countries and put the well-being of people and the planet at the centre of the new institutional mandate.
These aims cannot be achieved without an active role of civil society in Europe and globally. Civil society organisations are a crucial link between citizens on one hand, and the EU and governments on the other. Working together across borders at all levels, we are your allies in efforts to promote sustainable human, social and economic development. As such, we strongly encourage you and the whole of the next European Commission to engage with civil society organisations as meaningful and equal partners who can positively contribute to EU policy elaboration, implementation and oversight.
We call upon you to select a College of Commissioners that will be ready to act in line with the aforementioned priorities. Specifically, we are convinced that the portfolio of the Commissioner for International Partnerships should be maintained in the new mandate and remain distinct from other policy areas such as trade, security or migration management. Supporting sustainable development in partner countries should not be based on the EU’s commercial or geopolitical interests. Instead, commitment to the 2030 Agenda, including global inequality reduction and the wellbeing of people and the planet must be at the heart of DG INTPA’s mission. In their work, the incumbent should also regard civil society as a genuine partner while supporting the President to ensure policy coherence for sustainable development backed up by the requisite funding.
The High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, in turn, will play a key role in ensuring the Union remains true to its own principles in external affairs, as guaranteed by the Treaties. To this end, the new High Representative should remain committed to embedding human rights, human security and gender equality as cornerstones of EU external action. Embracing collaboration over competition and promoting civic space globally is in the EU’s interest, in line with its social contract and in the spirit of promoting a just and inclusive rules-based world order.
In order to provide more clarity about our vision for these key roles, we attach our model mission letters for the future Commissioner for International Partnerships and High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy as annexes. We invite you to consider them while preparing the actual mission statements of the members of your College.
In the event of the approval of your candidature by the European Parliament, we would be happy to meet you to elaborate on the proposals outlined in this letter and to discuss our contribution to the European Commission’s 2024-2029 mandate.
We are looking forward to working with you for more equal, just and inclusive societies in a sustainable world.
Yours sincerely,
Signatories:
CONCORD
EU-LAT Network
Eurodad
Friends of Europe
Global Health Advocates
Lifelong Learning Platform
The Europe Central-Africa Network (EurAc)
CONCORD is the European Confederation of 58 NGOs working on sustainable development and international cooperation. We envision a world where people live free of poverty and exploitation. This must be achieved by a citizen-led transformative agenda based on social justice and gender equality and respecting diversity and the limits of our planetary capacity. We are the main interlocutor with the EU institutions on sustainable development policy and international cooperation. We work together to ensure that European policies promote sustainable economic, social and human development, addressing the causes of poverty, based on human rights, gender equality, justice and democracy.
The EU-LAT Network is a pluralistic network of European movements and organisations that promote solidarity between the people of Latin America and Europe. The network was founded on October 11, 2017 after two European networks – CIFCA (Copenhagen Initiative for Central America and Mexico) and Grupo Sur – decided to join forces in order to strengthen their advocacy actions to promote participatory European policies, with a gender perspective, that contributes to the comprehensive respect for human rights, democratisation and sustainable development in Latin America.
The European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad) is a civil society network advocating for democratically-controlled, gender-just and human rights-based financial and economic systems. Eurodad is a network of 60 European NGOs in 28 countries. We work to ensure that the financial system at the global and European levels is democratically controlled, environmentally sustainable, contributes to poverty eradication and delivers human rights for all.
Friends of Europe is an independent think tank for a more inclusive, sustainable, and forward-thinking Europe. We take a whole of society, whole of economy approach. We engage citizens, critical thinkers, and unusual voices, alongside today’s and tomorrow’s decisionmakers. We think it’s time for a renewed 21st-century social contract for Europe based on peace, prosperity, sustainability and European rights and values. Friends of Europe published ‘10 Policy Choices for a Renewed Social Contract for Europe’ in February 2024. Our objective is to shift mindsets and behaviours towards addressing social problems and to offer actionable policy choices to the leaders of today and tomorrow.
Global Health Advocates is a French NGO whose mission is to carry out political advocacy in France and with the EU institutions to ensure policies and resources are effectively addressing health inequalities.
The Lifelong Learning Platform is an umbrella that gathers 44 European organisations active in the field of education, training and youth, coming from all over Europe and beyond. Currently these networks represent more than 50 000 educational institutions and associations covering all sectors of formal, non-formal and informal learning. Their members reach out to several millions of beneficiaries.
The Europe Central-Africa Network (EurAc), created in 2003, serves as the umbrella organisation of over 30 non-governmental organisations and networks, working closely with civil society from the Great Lakes Region in Central Africa, and supporting their efforts in building a better future. The network is active in the areas of peace and security, human rights as well as sustainable management of natural resources. EurAc carries out advocacy work for a strong, coherent and sustainable engagement by the European Union (EU) and its Member States (MS), integrated into a regional approach.
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