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In just a few days, the world will probably be marking the Worldwide Day of Happiness. As the worldwide pandemic rages on, we’d all be excused for asking to what extent we are able to afford to lift a glass this 12 months, as we endure a well being disaster that has remoted us from our family members and positioned a lot pressure on our livelihood.
And but, our activity as politicians begins proper right here — in safeguarding the well-being of our residents and making certain all of us come out of this second able to rebuild.
In my work on the European Parliament and different fora up to now months, I’ve burdened on the necessity to place sustainability as a key strategy in shaping a post-Covid coverage for our societies, and for Europe’s economies.
To start with, our societies can develop into really sustainable if a stronger sense of well-being is achieved for his or her working inhabitants.
As I led the Report on Europe’s Technique for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises on behalf of the S&D Group final 12 months, I emphasised the necessity to guarantee extra incentives and assets for our companies in order that these can undertake extra sustainable fashions, higher help their staff, and therefore be higher positioned for the challenges forward.
As a member of the Tourism Process Pressure inside the EP, I’ve additionally urged for the necessity to discover a stronger steadiness between guests, the wants of native communities and the native ecosystems of locations.
Elsewhere, I’ve additionally insisted on the urgency to attain higher connectivity for Europe’s peripheral areas, together with Malta and Gozo, and to make sure a extra aggressive footing for enterprises based mostly in them.
It is just becoming that, in outlining its seventeen Sustainable Improvement Targets, the United Nations has identified the necessity to cut back inequality, finish poverty, and defend our planet as three key elements that result in social and private well-being and happiness.
At a time when an elevated sense of isolation, larger challenges in reaching work-life steadiness, and fewer bodily social interplay are having an affect on the psychological well being of our populations, sustainability additionally means ensuring each member of our society feels cared for, included, and their contribution recognised throughout our native communities.
The primary months of 2021 have introduced me in touch with folks from all walks of life — social carers, people on rehabilitation programmes, entrepreneurs and members of non-governmental organisations, to say just a few.
The shared sentiment I’ve observed is that the extra we glance out for one another, the extra we predict in sustainable methods, and the extra we contain each other, the stronger we’ll emerge from this second.
Now’s the time to behave collectively.
Dr Josianne Cutajar is a Member of the European Parliament
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