EU Presidency Statement - Cooperation between the UN and the interparliamentary union

Mr. President,

I speak on behalf of the European Union. The countries of Central and Eastern Europe associated with the European Union (Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia) and the associated countries (Cyprus, Malta, Turkey) associate themselves with this declaration.

Mr President,

Cooperation between the United Nations and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) goes back a long way, to 1947, when the IPU was one of the first organisations to obtain general consultative status with ECOSOC.

As the Ambassador of India emphasised in his excellent presentation of the draft Resolution before us today, that privileged relationship blossomed afresh in 1996, when a Cooperation Agreement was concluded between the IPU and the UN.

Since its first appearance on the agenda at the 50th session of the United Nations General Assembly, this item has been the subject of an annual debate in plenary when the Resolution is examined. That is a measure of the importance, which the Member States of the United Nations accord it, as indeed is the annual adoption of the Resolution by consensus.

Mr President,

The European Union welcomes recent moves towards associating our Parliaments even more closely with UN activities.

In recent months the international community has reiterated, solemnly and at the highest level, its wish to see a stronger affirmation of the role of Parliaments in international life.

That wish was clearly expressed by the people's elected representatives themselves at the Conference of Presiding Officers of National Parliaments, which the IPU organised at UN headquarters on 30 August and 1 September 2000. The point was also forcefully made in the Millennium Declaration adopted on 8 September.

On that occasion the Heads of State and Government decided, and I quote, "to strengthen further cooperation between the United Nations and national parliaments through their world organisation, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, in various fields, including peace and security, economic and social development, international law and human rights and democracy and gender issues".

Mr President,

In the spirit of these messages from the highest authorities of our countries, the European Union calls for full recognition of the contribution of parliamentary diplomacy to achieving the aims of the United Nations.

The unanimous adoption of the Declaration by the Presiding Officers of Parliaments entitled "the parliamentary vision for international cooperation at the dawn of the third millennium" was without doubt one of the highlights of this Millennium Assembly.

It has surely confirmed the role that national Parliaments can play in bringing people together at international level, and thus in constructing a more peaceful, more democratic and more prosperous world.

It confirms for the future that the voice of parliamentarians can and must be heard in the concert of Nations. The European Union is convinced - hence its co-sponsorship today - that the Resolution before us now in the General Assembly will enable parliamentarians in all countries to have their voices more clearly heard.

In calling on the UN to enter into a new, stronger relationship with the IPU, the General Assembly demonstrates its commitment to opening up the United Nations to the people themselves, to public opinion, to international civil society.

This drive to open up is totally consistent with the initiatives taken by the Secretary-General throughout this Millennium Assembly, and I should like to take this opportunity to salute them on behalf of the European Union. Ultimately, opening up will require a bold, collective effort of imagination, so that the most ancient of international political institutions can take its rightful place within the United Nations.

Thank you.

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