Panos Carvounis (European Delegation) Final Speech

High level meeting: "Financing a Transformative Post-2015 Agenda – how does infrastructure finance fit in?"

Athens - 3 June 2014

(Faculty Club, University of Athens)

Speech of Mr. Panos Carvounis,

Head of the Representation of the European Commission in Greece

First, let me thank the University of Athens and the team in charge of the European Report on Development for organizing this important workshop.

Let me in particular thank Prof. Louka T. Katseli, which is one of the core members of the team leading this research and who I suspect triggered the initiative of organizing a debate in Athens. Many thanks of course to the Dean of the University of Athens.

We are proud to see the participation of Konstantinos Hatzidakis, Minister for Development and Competitivenessand of Prof. George Zannias, Chair of the National Bank of Greece

I convey to all of you the best wishes from my colleagues from Brussels who follow this project working in DG Europeaid - they are very disappointed they couldn’t be with us today.

Let me give in short some background on the European Report on Development (ERD) initiative. Supported by the European Commission and several EU Member States, it aims at mobilizing independent research to feed the development debate, not only in the EU but also at the global level. The ERD has proven to be a most valuable tool to strengthen the links between policy and research.

Three well known think tanks in the area of development - "Overseas Development Institute (ODI)", "German Development Institute (DIE)" and "European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM)" - have been involved in several editions already – and this year we are delighted that the consortium has expanded to include the network of Southern Voice on Post Millennium Development Goals(Post-MDGs). For this edition we have on board as well the University of Athens which we particularly welcome.

Four editions have already been published of this Report, the latest of which focused on “Post-2015: Global Action for an Inclusive and Sustainable Future”. This forthcoming European Report on Development (ERD) 2014 follows naturally: after focusing on the “what”, we turn to the “how” by looking at “Financing and Other Means of Implementation in the Post-2015 Context.”

The post-2015 agenda is certainly one of the crucial topics for the international community at the moment, for the EU and beyond the EU.. The sheer amount of debate and literature it has sparked, attests to the importance we ascribe to agreeing on a vision and roadmap for the “world we want” beyond 2015. We are all engaged in a global conversation on an almost unprecedented scale, which is set to continue until the September 2015 Summit where the agenda will be agreed – and beyond.

Indeed, the 2015 deadline presents us with the huge challenge of designing a new framework, but alsowith a huge opportunity. We have set the bar very high, as we are aiming to agree on a single, universal overarching agenda which will enable us to tackle the interlinked challenges of poverty eradication and sustainable development (in its three dimensions) together.

Agreeing on such an agenda – including on goals and targets applicable to all countries – will be no small feat. But if we agree on the vision and objectives without having considered how to get there – we will not have fully fulfilled our mission.

This is why the issue of financing and other means of implementation is so crucial. It’s not only about mobilizing all resources, but also about making the most effective use of them, in order to effectively support transformative change. And the post-2015 agenda will need to be underpinned by aglobal partnership in which all actors will contribute their fair share to the achievement of the goals- and be held mutually accountable.

Yet this debate is more often than not hampered by ideological discourse – rooted in a divisive and increasingly obsolete North/South binary narrative – at the expense of constructive discussion. This is why research has such an important role to play – you can bring independent, evidence-based knowledge and recommendations, and help us chart the way forward.

The theme of the debate is at the core of a “global debate”: infrastructure is crucial for a transformative agenda; infrastructure helps economies to structurally transform themselves, lift people out of poverty by offering better services, whilst a move towards greener (energy) and infrastructure can also address climate change concerns.

To conclude we are confident that the European Report on Development (ERD) will usefully inform our reflection on the way forward, hopefully across regions, and will provide a timely, informative and valuable contribution to the global debate.

Today’s workshop brings together expertise from the EU and from the development sector, mixing policy makers and researchers/academics and the finance and private sector. This is in itself a promising format, a first step for exploring innovative solutions and new paths.