Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Wednesday the European Commission had concluded in its report in May that Croatia was making timely progress in achieving almost all of the sustainable development goals and noted that this had been done despite many challenges over the past four years.

“They say that we made progress on all the indicators contributing to the achievement of goals, namely those linked to fairness, productivity and macroeconomic stability and almost all indicators linked to environmental sustainability,” the prime minister said at the second session of the National Council for Sustainable Development.

Croatia is above the EU average on as many as eight goals and below the EU average on nine goals, but is making progress on them, he added.

“Sustainability concerns a balanced approach to economic profit, social welfare and environmental protection, whose different approaches are often opposed to each other. Only with an approach that will at the same time take into account the economic, social and environmental dimensions will we be able to develop a long-term development model and strengthen our resilience to future challenges,” Plenkovic said.

The Council discussed Croatia’s progress in the past four years in implementing the goals of the UN’s 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development, a key platform for addressing the biggest challenges of today. By achieving 17 goals, it aims to improve people’s lives, increase well-being, protect the environment, maintain peace and promote partnerships and cooperation.

The implementation of these policies is an integral part of policy priorities at EU level. Croatia presented its first Voluntary National Review in 2019 and is now presenting the second one in the tenth year of its EU membership.

Achieving sustainable development goals is important in a globalised world

Plenkovic said that achieving the sustainable development goals was particularly important in a globalised, fast-changing world in which humanity was facing unprecedented environmental, social and economic challenges.

“Apart from accelerated climate change, we are also witnessing the loss of biodiversity, extreme droughts, floods, a pandemic and related geopolitical disturbances, armed conflicts and migration,” he said.

That’s why in our social and economic development strategy we should take greater account of physical limitations of our natural resources, which are not endless and which are diminishing by the day while our needs are increasing, he added.

“This is precisely the task of this National Council for Sustainable Development, within which we will coordinate and harmonise national policies taking greater account of the concept of sustainability,” Plenkovic said.

Development priorities

He presented three development priorities for Croatia – digital transformation, demographic revitalisation and decarbonisation, which will be addressed by the Council in order to achieve climate neutrality and greater energy independence.

According to the UN report on sustainable development for last year, Croatia ranked 23rd among 163 countries in achieving the sustainable development goals. The data was updated this morning and Croatia now ranks 12th globally.

“We have achieved this in face of many challenges, in particular the severe consequences of climate change in the form of droughts, floods and wildfires. We were also affected, like everyone else, by the COVID-19 pandemic, and had two devastating earthquakes,” Plenkovic said.

Presenting the report, Minister for Regional Development and EU Funds Sime Erlic said that Croatia was making its contribution to the promotion of sustainable development.

“Compared with 2019, visible progress has been made in achieving all the sustainable development goals. Of course, there are still challenges to achieving certain goals and more work will need to be done in the time ahead,” Erlic said.

Croatia is due to present its second Voluntary National Review in New York in July.