Civil Society Forum for Sustainability: Shaping the European Green Deal – 9 – 10 June
The European Green Deal at half-time: assessing progress and gaps towards achieving the 2030 Agenda
9-10 June 2022, Brussels
The first meeting of the Forum will take place in Brussels, Belgium, on the 9th and 10th of June 2022. The meeting will be in person only. It will last one and a half days, and it will be preceded by the Annual General Assembly of SDG Watch Europe, which will take place on the 9th of June from 9.00 – 13.00.
You can find the details below:
Thursday 9th June: 09h00-17h00: Mundo B, Rue d’Edimbourg 26, 1050 Ixelles, Brussels
Friday 10th June: 09h00-17h30: Mundo Madou, Rue des Arts 7-8, 1210 Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, Brussels.
What?
The first meeting of the Forum will bring together representatives of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) for a mid-term review of the European Green Deal (EGD). The main objective of this meeting will be to flesh out the gaps of the EGD towards achieving the 2030 Agenda, identify its shortcomings and disconnections from other relevant processes and, altogether, discuss how to address these issues and strengthen the EGD. Results of the discussions will be compiled into a report that will be shared with relevant policymakers, such as relevant DGs in the European Commission, MEPs and EP Committees, Permanent Representations to the EU and more. Moreover, participants will have the opportunity to share their input directly with policymakers during the closing session of the Forum’s meeting.
Who?
Participants will be member organisations of SDG Watch Europe, the European Alliance for a Just Transition and the Real Deal project consortium, given their role in fostering participation and social and civil dialogue in the context of the green transition and the SDGs. For this meeting, the Forum aims to gather around 50 participants from organisations operating at European and/or national level.
The forum will ensure diversity and gender-balance, with strong representation of women’s rights and gender groups, marginalised groups, groups representing young people and senior citizens, civil society organisations, the trade union movement, business representatives, experts, researchers from urban, peri-urban and rural areas across the EU and its neighbourhood. In the selection of participants, the organisers will seek to ensure a wide range of interests, values, and balanced expertise in the fields of participation, deliberation, and civil dialogue and the environmental, social, economic and governance dimensions of sustainable development.
How?
The first forum meeting will be based on participatory methods of facilitation to engage all participants in discussions around the European Green Deal and its shortcomings. Participants will be sent short recommended readings in advance to set the context of the discussion.
On the first day, after an opening to set the policy context, participants will be divided into different working groups to identify and discuss some of the gaps of the EGD.
On the second day, participants will be able to join three different group discussions on specific topics or dimensions of the European Green Deal (gender equality, future of work, climate, etc.). These working groups will be facilitated by the Real Deal partners according to their interests and areas of expertise. There will be a variety of topical discussions that will allow thoroughly exploring the shortcomings of the European Green Deal from multiple angles and perspectives. As a closing for those discussions, participants and facilitators will be able to present the outcomes of their discussions in a plenary session and engage in a brief debate with stakeholders.
The outcomes of the discussions will be collected and used as insights to develop a report that will be disseminated amongst key stakeholders and policymakers.
See below a draft of the working programme for the two days:
Thursday 9 June
14:00 -14:30: Opening and welcome words
14:30 – 15:00: Real Deal: what; why and how? – Presentation by project partners
15:00 – 16:00: Green Deal and Agenda 2030: where are we at now? – Presentation by stakeholders
BREAK
16:30 – 17:30: Group discussion – Green Deal, where are the gaps?
Friday 10 June
9:00 – 9:30: Opening
9:30 – 10:45: First Group Discussion
BREAK
11:00 – 12:15: Second Group Discussion
LUNCH
13:30-14:45: Third Group Discussion
BREAK
15:00 – 16:30: Plenary session and closing
