Madrid, April 26, 2023. Juan Romo, President of Crue Spanish Universities, and Lilith Vestrynge, Spanish Secretary of State for the 2030 Agenda, signed a collaboration agreement on Wednesday, April 26, to promote the necessary transferable skills in Spanish universities to support the development of the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda and the national 2030 Sustainable Development Strategy. Santiago García Granda, President of Crue’s Commission for the 2030 Agenda, and Gabriel Castañares, Director-General of Accelerating Policies for the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda of the Secretary of State, also attended the event at the headquarters of the Ministry of Social Rights and the 2030 Agenda.
The activities covered by this agreement will focus on identifying, analysing, and evaluating activities developed in compliance with the SDGs of the 2030 Agenda and the priorities of the national 2030 Sustainable Development Strategy, as well as considering the global context. The agreement includes the intention of initiating studies and other academic work that contribute to improving the implementation of the Spanish 2030 Sustainable Development Strategy. In this regard, this agreement foresees the development of a methodology to analyse and monitor the degree of implementation of the SDGs in Spanish universities, as well as a guide of best practices for extending these priorities to the different areas of university activity.
President Juan Romo has highlighted that, with the signing of this agreement, ‘Crue fulfils its role of collaborating with the State Administration in a project of strategic interest for Spain, introducing the University as a key agent in the Sustainable Development Strategy 2030’. Likewise, he highlighted the ‘commitment and involvement’ of Crue with the fulfilment of the 2030 Agenda and recalled that, for this purpose, Crue created its Commission for the 2030 Agenda in March 2019. This specialised commission aims to encourage and coordinate joint actions to ensure and promote compliance with the 2030 Agenda and the 17 SDGs, as well as to increase awareness in the university community. It is transversal in nature and brings together representatives from Crue’s nine Sectorial Commissions.
Lilith Vestrynge stated that the Ministry of Social Rights and the 2030 Agenda is ‘really satisfied to be able to count on the knowledge and research capacity of Spanish universities to promote the achievement of the 2030 Agenda in our country. It is essential to have applied knowledge to be able to monitor and solve the social, economic, and environmental problems we face. For this reason, we want to thank and recognize the involvement and commitment of Crue, not only for this agreement that we signed today, but also for the work that they have been doing with their participation in the Sustainable Development Council’.
