Montenegro and Slovenia
Co-chairs, Excellences, Ladies and Gentlemen,
On behalf of the team Montenegro and Slovenia I would like to first congratulate both co-chairs upon
your election. It's a great pleasure to see that sustainable development, one of the greatest global
challenges we have been facing, is attracting such prominent and numerous audience.
I would like to align Montenegro and Slovenia with the statement made by the European Union.
Slovenia and Montenegro believe that dialogue on sustainable development and other global issues
is an important component for building better future with keeping development within planetary
boundaries. Only through a concerted and integrated global action we can be successful in
overcoming the many challenges faced by the communities across the globe.
We welcome the fact that the 1st session of the Open Working Group on sustainable development
goals is taking place after a long process of consultation on its composition and the organizational
modalities of its work. We are looking forward to constructive and interactive debates today and at
our future meetings.
Montenegro and Slovenia put great importance on sustainable development, follow-up of Rio + 20,
and especially to the elaboration of global Sustainable Development Goals. It is our belief that
SDGs, being universal in nature, can be flexible enough to allow the differences among the countries
to be taken into account.
Members of the Open Working Group have a great responsibility with challenging mandate to
prepare a proposal of concrete sustainable development goals. This process will require regular
close cooperation with other Member States, Observer States, other observes, all relevant
stakeholders and all levels of governance.
Slovenia and Montenegro as part of a team occupying one seat in the Open Working Group will do
their utmost to constructively contribute to the successful completion of the group's mandate. We will
be building our active and constructive participation especially on our national knowledge and best
practices in the field of sustainable development.
Sustainable development is a complex concept; many thematic and cross-cutting issues are waiting
a proper response from the international community, as well as from regional, national and local
levels. This was reflected in many thematic suggestions on concrete sustainable development goals
that have already been presented in the past months in different foras. Many more is yet to follow.
Therefore it is very important to keep in mind the need for a balanced approach towards all three
dimensions of sustainable development. We are strongly convinced that sustainable development
goals should address and incorporate all three dimensions of sustainable development in a balanced
and coherent manner. We also believe that sustainable development goals should be coherent with
and integrated in the development agenda beyond 2015 with a view to an overarching framework for
post-2015.
The Open Working Group has a challenging task of giving serious consideration to a wide range of
different proposals, to follow scientific research and data, to elaborate the most appropriate
characteristics of sustainable development goals and link them to concrete targets and indicators,
which will allow measuring the progress of implementing them. Let me remind all of us that in the
upcoming months, the set timeframe will pressure us in our endeavours to complete all these tasks
in due time.
We're committed to the Open Working Group and to the process of establishing a set of sustainable
development goals. We stand ready to listen to the proposals from all relevant sources and to work
together with other member states of the Open Working Group in order to successfully complete the
mandate that was bestowed on us by our leaders in Rio last year.
Thank you.
On behalf of the team Montenegro and Slovenia I would like to first congratulate both co-chairs upon
your election. It's a great pleasure to see that sustainable development, one of the greatest global
challenges we have been facing, is attracting such prominent and numerous audience.
I would like to align Montenegro and Slovenia with the statement made by the European Union.
Slovenia and Montenegro believe that dialogue on sustainable development and other global issues
is an important component for building better future with keeping development within planetary
boundaries. Only through a concerted and integrated global action we can be successful in
overcoming the many challenges faced by the communities across the globe.
We welcome the fact that the 1st session of the Open Working Group on sustainable development
goals is taking place after a long process of consultation on its composition and the organizational
modalities of its work. We are looking forward to constructive and interactive debates today and at
our future meetings.
Montenegro and Slovenia put great importance on sustainable development, follow-up of Rio + 20,
and especially to the elaboration of global Sustainable Development Goals. It is our belief that
SDGs, being universal in nature, can be flexible enough to allow the differences among the countries
to be taken into account.
Members of the Open Working Group have a great responsibility with challenging mandate to
prepare a proposal of concrete sustainable development goals. This process will require regular
close cooperation with other Member States, Observer States, other observes, all relevant
stakeholders and all levels of governance.
Slovenia and Montenegro as part of a team occupying one seat in the Open Working Group will do
their utmost to constructively contribute to the successful completion of the group's mandate. We will
be building our active and constructive participation especially on our national knowledge and best
practices in the field of sustainable development.
Sustainable development is a complex concept; many thematic and cross-cutting issues are waiting
a proper response from the international community, as well as from regional, national and local
levels. This was reflected in many thematic suggestions on concrete sustainable development goals
that have already been presented in the past months in different foras. Many more is yet to follow.
Therefore it is very important to keep in mind the need for a balanced approach towards all three
dimensions of sustainable development. We are strongly convinced that sustainable development
goals should address and incorporate all three dimensions of sustainable development in a balanced
and coherent manner. We also believe that sustainable development goals should be coherent with
and integrated in the development agenda beyond 2015 with a view to an overarching framework for
post-2015.
The Open Working Group has a challenging task of giving serious consideration to a wide range of
different proposals, to follow scientific research and data, to elaborate the most appropriate
characteristics of sustainable development goals and link them to concrete targets and indicators,
which will allow measuring the progress of implementing them. Let me remind all of us that in the
upcoming months, the set timeframe will pressure us in our endeavours to complete all these tasks
in due time.
We're committed to the Open Working Group and to the process of establishing a set of sustainable
development goals. We stand ready to listen to the proposals from all relevant sources and to work
together with other member states of the Open Working Group in order to successfully complete the
mandate that was bestowed on us by our leaders in Rio last year.
Thank you.
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