Written declaration, under Rule 136 of Parliament’s Rules of Procedure, on representation of the rights of future generations and on intergenerational justice in EU decision- and policy-making
1. Future generations have no voice and representation in current EU decision-making, despite its complex and long-term effects. The need to design policies with a sense of responsibility for future generations has been highlighted repeatedly, inter alia in the review of the EU’s Sustainable Development Strategy and the Environment Action Programme to 2020, as well as in the outcome document of the UN Rio+20 negotiations and the UN report on intergenerational solidarity and the needs of future generations.
2. Examples exist of the provision of guarantees for intergenerational justice within and outside the EU, including Commissioners/Ombudsmen in Wales, Hungary, Canada, New Zealand and, formerly, Israel.
3. The Commission is hence called upon to explore options encompassing institutional and administrative arrangements and to take concrete action on creating a framework to improve governance and explicitly represent future generations in order to better integrate their rights into decision- and policy-making at European level.
4. The Commission is also called upon to advise and support its Member States and regional actors in embedding the issue of intergenerational solidarity into decisions and policies.
5. This declaration, together with the names of the signatories, is forwarded to the Council and the Commission.