EU Presidency Statement - The role of the UN

Question of implementation of the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations related to assistance to third States affected by the application of sanctions

Madame Chairperson,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The Central and Eastern European Countries associated with the European Union; Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and the Associated Countries Cyprus and Malta, as well as the EFTA member of the EEA Norway align themselves with this statement.

Pursuant to resolution 55/156, the Charter Committee is requested to consider on a priority basis the question of implementation of the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations related to assistance to third States affected by the application of sanctions under Chapter VII.

We would like to briefly recall the EU position on this issue. The European Union believes that every effort should be made to minimise any negative impact on third States from measures adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter. The European Union has also pointed out that the effectiveness of sanctions regimes must be preserved.

In the general statement of the European Union delivered in the beginning of this session, mention was made of the important steps taken by the Secretary-General on this matter. One such step was the convening of the Ad Hoc Expert Group in June 1998. Its deliberations on developing a methodology for assessing the consequences incurred by third States resulted in a set of recommendations and proposals for innovative and practical measures of international assistance to the affected third States. The recommendations and proposals of the expert group constitute a useful basis for the consideration of measures aimed at minimising the negative impact of sanctions on vulnerable groups in the target State and on the economies of third States.

Many of the recommendations concern the Secretariat, which among other things would be entrusted with the preparation of an advance assessment of the potential impact of sanctions. As stated in previous sessions, the European Union looks forward to the views of the Secretary-General on the detailed suggestions of the experts, in particular on their political, financial and administrative feasibility, taking into account i.a. the forthcoming report of the working group of the Security Council. The European Union therefore believes that it would be difficult for the Committee to have a substantial and detailed discussion on the recommendations until we have heard the Secretary-General's views.

We also note the important current work of the Security Council in addressing issues related to sanctions. In the Note of the President of the Security Council of 29 January 1999 (S/1999/92),

the existing Sanctions Committees were reminded to request the Secretariat to provide, whenever necessary, assessments on the impact of sanctions. The European Union welcomes the continuing efforts of the Security Council to improve the functioning of the Sanctions Committees, to streamline their working procedures and to facilitate access to them by third States affected by sanctions.

The note by the President of the Security Council of 17 April 2000 established a working group

to develop general recommendations on how to improve the effectiveness of UN sanctions. We welcome the work done by the working group under the chairmanship of Ambassador Chowdhury and look forward to the findings of the working group and hope that the Security Council will continue its efforts to further enhance the effectiveness and transparency of the sanctions committees and to streamline their working procedures. The European Union is also pleased to note the role of ECOSOC in monitoring economic assistance to third States especially affected by economic problems related to sanctions.

There have been a number of important initiatives outside the UN framework to develop targeted sanctions as a tool of the UN Security Council. The UK Department for International Development sponsored a pioneering seminar on smarter sanctions in London in December 1998. In 1998 - 1999 the Swiss Government sponsored two in-depth seminars at Interlaken on improving the effectiveness of financial sanctions. Germany built on this in 1999 - 2000 by sponsoring the Bonn-Berlin process, which developed recommendations aimed at improving the effectiveness of arms embargoes and travel sanctions, including flight bans. We hope that similar initiatives will follow. The European Union hopes that in their consideration of issues related to sanctions, the members of the UN Security Council and the UN Secretariat will make frequent reference to the recommendations emerging from these ground-breaking initiatives.

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• EU Presidency Statement - The role of the UN (2/4/2001)