The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was unveiled in 2015 with the aim of eradicating poverty and putting the world on a path toward stability, growth, and opportunity for all people on a safe planet. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call for a complete overhaul of the financial, economic, and political structures that control our economies today in order to ensure that everyone's human rights are protected. They necessitate tremendous political will and bold action on the part of all stakeholders. However, as Member States acknowledged at the SDG Summit in September, existing global initiatives have fallen short of delivering the transition required, jeopardizing the Agenda's commitment to current and future generations.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, growth was uneven, and we were not on target to achieve the Goals by 2030, according to the Sustainable Development Goals Study 2020. There were some visible gains: the number of children and youth out of school had decreased; the prevalence of certain communicable diseases had decreased; access to clean drinking water had improved; and women's participation in leadership positions had increased. At the same time, the number of people facing food malnutrition was increasing, the environmental ecosystem was declining at an unprecedented pace, and drastic levels of deprivation continued in all regions.

Change was also not occurring at the appropriate rate or size. Now, as a result of COVID-19, an ongoing health, economic, and social crisis threatens lives and livelihoods, rendering the accomplishment of the Goals much more difficult. The death toll had reached 400,000 people by the beginning of June, and it was still increasing, with almost no nation untouched. Many countries' health-care services are on the verge of disintegrating. Half of the world's population has had their livelihoods seriously impacted. More than 1.6 billion students are out of school, and tens of millions of people are being forced back into chronic poverty and malnutrition, reversing recent gains.

The novel coronavirus affects everybody, and every culture and it has highlighted and amplified existing inequality and injustices. In emerging economies, vulnerable populations have had the highest fatality rates. The most disadvantaged populations in developed countries, such as those working in the informal economies, the elderly, teenagers, people with disabilities, indigenous peoples, migrants, and refugees, are at risk of being struck even harder.

Young people are overwhelmingly impacted across the world, especially in the workplace.

Women and girls are confronted with new challenges and risks, ranging from a looming pandemic of abuse to the added pressures of unpaid care work. Rather than challenging the case for the SDGs, COVID-19's root causes and unequal effects highlight the importance of the 2030 Agenda, the Paris Climate Agreement, and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, as well as the speed of which they must be implemented. As a result, it has been repeatedly called for a concerted and systematic international response and recovery effort, driven by the Sustainable Development Goals and focused on sound evidence and research.

^{Figure 9 - SDGs}

In countries that are most at risk, health services must be rapidly improved, with expanded potential for monitoring, tracing, and care. When medications and vaccines become affordable, universal coverage is critical. To ensure that developed countries have the tools they need to defend their households and enterprises, a large-scale multilateral response is needed. Recovery packages would promote equitable access to high-quality public services while also facilitating the transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient economy. Leadership and guidance are also needed to ensure that statistical organisations have the tools and services they need to make timely and intelligent decisions.

The United Nations system has organized at all levels to direct and encourage these actions, incorporating recent UN development system changes. We all call for increased determination, mobilization, leadership, and concerted action at the outset of this Decade of Action to deliver the SDGs, not only to defeat COVID-19, but to rebound best, collectively – winning the fight against climate change, decisively addressing poverty and injustice, genuinely empowering all women and girls, and building more sustainable and egalitarian communities everywhere.

In the EU and beyond, the transition to a circular economy should be structural, intense, and transformative. All stakeholders at all levels - EU, global, regional, and local, as well as international - will need to align and cooperate.

As a result, the Commission urges EU agencies and organizations to support and effectively participate in the adoption of this Action Plan, as well as Member States to enact or revise their national circular economy policies, plans, and initiatives in light of its ambition.

In addition, the Commission will propose that circular economy must be included among the subjects for debate on Europe's future as well as a regular subject of citizens' dialogues.