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EU Presidency Statement - Implementation of and follow-up to major UN Conferences and Summits - ECOSOC

I have the honor to take the floor on behalf of the European Union. The Candidate Countries Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and Croatia, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, and the EFTA countries Liechtenstein and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, align themselves with this declaration.

We are entering a very important year. The issues ECOSOC deals with will be very much in evidence, as we prepare for the major event of 2005, which will take stock of the effective implementation of the outcomes of the major UN conferences and summits and progress made in implementing the Millennium Declaration and towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

These tasks are related, since achieving the MDGs requires the implementation of a broad agenda. ECOSOC has an important role to play in this process. Next year the ministerial segment should, therefore, focus on conference follow up, on the implementation of the Millennium Declaration from the economic and social perspective, and on achieving the MDGs. The coordination segment should focus on the way the UN system helps achieve the MDGs. This way, next year's substantive session of ECOSOC would contribute in a comprehensive manner to the 2005 major event, with the aim of drawing focussed attention to economic, social and sustainable development and human rights. It will help reinvigorate our agenda and make clear where we will have to accelerate in order to meet the challenges we face.

We welcome the discussions we are having on a multi-year programme of the coordination segment. This is one part of fulfilling the mandate of General Assembly resolution 57/270 B, and focusing on cross cutting themes. This is after all the role of ECOSOC. Overall ECOSOC and its functional commissions are playing a very important role in conference follow up.

• The recent ECOSOC special high level meeting with the Bretton Woods Institutions and WTO discussed the follow up to the Monterrey Consensus. The meeting stressed the role of multilateral institutions in achieving the MDGs, the role of the private sector and investment, and the need for debt relief and debt sustainability.
  
  
• The Commission on Sustainable Development, under the able leadership Minister Brende of Norway, energetically took up the first cycle of its follow up to Johannesburg and identified the obstacles and challenges in the field of water, sanitation and human settlements. Our readiness to overcome these obstacles and face these challenges will mark the success of CSD13. CSD13 should result in a concrete set of actions and provide a clear understanding on the role of different actors at multilateral, regional, national and even the local level, and on monitoring, including time frames. As indicated in the Secretary-General's report, ECOSOC may consider lessons learned from the new CSD process at its meeting next year. We look forward to discussing the Johannesburg follow up and, more specifically, how the UN system is taking up its commitments and responsibilities in this regard, at a future ECOSOC co-ordination segment.
  
  
• Other functional commissions should also consider how to reform their working methods, as instructed through General Assembly resolution 57/270 B, paragraph 46. We also of course recall the need to make better use of the consolitated report of the Secretary-General on the work of the functional commissions (paragraph 49 of 57/270 B).
  
  
• The Commission on Population and Development at its most recent session adopted by consensus a resolution on the follow-up of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development. This sends a positive signal by the international community at the tenth anniversary of the ICPD agenda. We were encouraged by the overwhelming reaffirmation and continued support for the Cairo Programme of Action during the debate. The EU considers that a strong and unequivocal reaffirmation of the Cairo Programme of Action is fundamental to the development and human rights agendas. Full implementation of the Programme of Action is essential to the achievement of all the MDGs, including universal access to sexual and reproductive health services. This requires political commitment of all governments.
  
  
• The Statistical Commission has done considerable work developing indicators for the MDGs. The EU reported on its related commitments within the framework of follow up of Monterrey at last year's High Level Dialogue on FFD. This April, EU Ministers decided that the EU would report more fully in 2005 on its contribution to achieving the MDGs. Additionally, some individual member states have recently reported on progress towards meeting their commitments under MDG8.
  
  
• As we get closer to the 2005 event, we also expect functional commissions to focus on 2005, as it relates to the various elements of the UN summits and conferences legacy. Most importantly, this includes the Commission on the Status of Women as it commemorates the ten year anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action at its 49th session, and the Commission on Social Development as it considers the implementation of the Copenhagen agenda next spring.
  
  
• In the boards of funds and programmes, the agendas of the summits and conferences are followed up as well. We appreciate the role of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board on Coordination and its High-level Committee on Programmes in ensuring adequate system-wide coordination in this regard. Regional commissions should indeed also play their part as far as monitoring outcomes is concerned.

This autumn, at the 59th General Assembly, we will set the framework for the high level event. ECOSOC next year should be an important voice in the 2005 process, and it should send a message of sustainable development, social justice and great expectations for the future.

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