Speech by Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner - The UN at the Crossroads

Sumario: June 3, 2005: Speech by Dr Benita Ferrero-Waldner, European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy, International Peace Academy, "The UN at the crossroads - signposting the way to a successful Summit" (New York)

The UN at the crossroads - signposting the way to a successful Summit

Your Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to thank the International Peace Academy and Terje Roed-Larsen for this invitation to speak.

I am delighted to be here in New York again and I look forward to my meetings later today with Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette, and General Assembly President Jean Ping. I tell my colleagues that the UN is like a family - no matter how far away you are, you always feel you still belong, and coming home is always a treat!

Since leaving I have been intimately involved in the European Union's affairs, first as Austria's State Secretary and later Foreign Minister, and now as the European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy. So my multilateral orientation has continued, for, as you know, the EU is a firm believer in multilateralism. That makes us instinctive allies of the UN.

As the EU Security Strategy states, effective multilateralism, with the UN at its core, is central to our external action. In today's world, multilateral cooperation is more essential than ever. And the UN is the heart and soul of the multilateral system. The vision of the world we espouse - one where international law and inclusiveness hold sway - can only be guaranteed by this globally legitimate institution. And today's security threats - hard and soft - cannot be dealt with without it.

That said, the European Union knows better than most that international organisations need re-tuning from time to time, to take account of changing realities. Such re-tuning can often be a painful and unpredictable process.

In recent days the EU has been consumed by the results of the French and Dutch referenda on the constitutional Treaty. The strong "no" votes were a major setback, widely reported even here in the US.

The consequences of these results and the possible implications for other Member States are not yet fully clear. It will take us time to digest and to draw out the lessons for the future. However, three general points hold true.

Firstly, we must respect the democratically expressed views of the people. The French and Dutch results were regrettably clear. Yet nine countries accounting for nearly 50% of EU citizens have already ratified the Treaty. The remaining countries should have a chance to express themselves on Europe's future direction. We need to listen to the people and take time to reflect on their messages.

Secondly, the pace of European integration has been incredibly fast, particularly in the last few years. We have successfully introduced the euro and re-united Europe with our enlargement to 10 new countries in May last year. These were heady achievements, but not surprisingly, they cannot be digested overnight. Perhaps, in our enthusiasm, we have allowed the political vision to get too far ahead of public opinion. Our societies need time to catch their breath before rising to the next challenge.

Lastly, while all this goes on, the existing EU institutions and Treaties remain in force and will continue to function. There is no meltdown in Europe. We have had institutional setbacks, even crises, in the past. Yet the world has kept turning. We remain open for business and determined to engage with the rest of the world.

The purpose of the Constitutional Treaty is to make the enlarged EU work better and bring policy closer to the citizen. It also aims to accelerate the trend in the EU's foreign policy towards a more coherent and focused contribution to world affairs. I am convinced that we will continue in this direction in the months to come, not least because EU public opinion is firmly behind strengthening Europe's role as a global actor.

You can be sure that we will remain a committed and engaged partner for the UN. In my experience the EU thrives on challenges, which is why we have put UN reform high on our agenda.

In three weeks time it will be 60 years since the signing of the UN Charter in San Francisco. The world has changed dramatically since then, and unsurprisingly the UN is in need of updating. Yet the Charters' resilience is a testimony to its drafters - the fundamental principles hold true today.

Our task now is to carry on their legacy. Not since 1945 have we had such an opportunity for progress - the need is widely recognised; we have a clear agenda in the form of the excellent reports from the Secretary General, the High Level Panel, the Millennium Project, and today, President Ping; and we have the perfect opportunity - the 60th anniversary summit in September. We must move beyond rhetoric - this is our opportunity to adapt the UN to the needs and challenges of the 21st Century. If we fail now, will our generation have a second chance to recapture this momentum for change?

Let me make it very clear: the EU will exercise its full authority in pushing the reform forward. We know that many expect us to do so and we are determined to live up to this responsibility.

We share the vision laid out by Kofi Annan in "In Larger Freedom". Like him, we believe that the trilogy of security; human rights; and development are inextricably linked. Addressing one effectively requires us to address them all.

1) Security

We wholeheartedly support the Secretary General's call for a new security consensus, in particular the broad meaning his report has given to the concept of peace and security.

This supports a concept I have promoted for many years - human security. One of the highlights of my tenure as Austria's Foreign Minister was chairing the Human Security Network in 2003. In this capacity, I focused particularly on human rights education - we produced a widely-used manual, translated into several languages - and children in armed conflict - where we established a curriculum for child rights experts. The idea is to put people, their human rights, and the threats they face at the centre of our policies. The EU has moved in this direction, and I am determined to push it further.

The emerging acceptance of a "responsibility to protect" is also deeply encouraging. I profoundly believe that where sovereign states show themselves unwilling or unable to fulfil this responsibility the international community must step in. Rwanda, Darfur, and elsewhere - where the international community has hesitated too long or failed to act at all - are shameful indictments of our traditional approach.

We should have no illusions about the implications - tough action, and painful political decisions. The heart-wrenching scenes from Darfur should stiffen our resolve.

I want to highlight our priorities for the EU in the reform debate. Let me begin with the proposed Peace Building Commission. There is a real need to bridge the gap between post-conflict assistance and long-term stabilisation and development. The Peace Building Commission would do just that. It should significantly reduce the potential for further conflict - let's not forget that two of the strongest indicators for conflict are past conflicts and human right abuses.

The European Union and the Commission have longstanding experience with peacebuilding around the world - from the Balkans to Afghanistan, and we are confident that we can contribute greatly to the work of the Peace Building Commission. We have concrete ideas for its effective operation, which we are putting to the secretariat and other partners. It should have a broad mandate covering the whole continuum from peace-making and peace-keeping activities to long-term development issues. It should pay particular attention to supporting democratisation and good governance, strengthening the rule of law, and ensuring respect for human rights - staying in close touch with the proposed Human Rights Council.

2) Human rights and democratisation

This brings me to my second point. Promoting human rights and democratisation is a moral obligation. It is also crucial in meeting today's security threats and ensuring sustainable development.

The Secretary-General's proposal of replacing the Commission on Human Rights with an entirely new mechanism - the Human Rights Council - and involving a wider UN community, could go a long way to address the obvious deficiencies of the present system. I hope that elections to this Council will be based on a solid record of commitment to the highest human rights standards. Countries must be willing to implement their human rights obligations and, for instance, work with UN Special Rapporteurs and Treaty Bodies.

We also support the proposal for a Democracy Fund. The EU wants to help with the design and implementation of this fund, in line with our own belief in promoting - though never imposing - democracy. Two points will be important here. First, the fund should be seen as an additional instrument available to the UN, in other words not replacing UNDP or the UN Electoral Assistance Division. Second, the fund should be available to both governmental and non-governmental - especially grass-roots - levels.

3) Development

The third part of the trilogy is sustainable development. Economic prosperity is not the preserve of the developed world. Eradicating poverty and promoting development are moral imperatives which the world's richest nations are bound to address.

President Barroso recently compared the modern scourges of poverty, hunger and disease to slavery 200 years ago. "Slavery" he said, "was then considered an inevitability; a natural part of the order of things. But that was wrong." Equally, it is wrong for us today to think of poverty as a fact of life. We can and must fight against it.

That is why focusing on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals is so vital. It is mainly a question of mustering the necessary political will. The EU is already the world's biggest donor, providing 55% of worldwide official development assistance among the Commission and Member States, worth $43 billion in 2004. Just last week we committed ourselves to further and substantially increase this amount - by 2010 we will provide nearly an extra $26 billion, and by 2015 we will reach the recommended 0.7% of gross national income (GNI).

Even this is may not be enough, and, as the Secretary-General suggests, we need to work on innovative sources of financing development, debt relief, increasing aid effectiveness and trade liberalisation as well as aid for trade..

There is also a clear link between poverty and political instability. Failed states pose one of the biggest security risks of our day. Kofi Annan illustrated the dilemma well when he said, "We will not defeat terrorism unless we also tackle the causes of conflict and misgovernment in developing countries. And we will not defeat poverty so long as trade and investment in any major part of the world are inhibited by fear of violence or instability."

In tackling poverty we also move a step closer to human security. But again - this cannot just be rhetoric. It requires developing countries to tackle corruption, reform justice systems and build transparent, efficient institutions as part of their national sustainable development strategies. Both developing and donor countries must make serious efforts to translate dollar and euro signs on paper into real and sustainable progress in our partner countries of the South.

I therefore urged the US in Washington yesterday, as the world's second largest donor in absolute terms (not on a per capita basis, of course), to follow the EU's lead on increasing ODA - if it did, the impact on poverty and security would be tremendous. We will continue to impress upon our partners in the US and elsewhere the urgency of taking action - Now.

Ladies and gentlemen,

2005 is a crucial year, the year we confront the fork in the road Kofi Annan so eloquently evoked.

The UN must be fully equipped and empowered to play its role in seeking multilateral solutions to global problems. The reform of the UN at the agenda for the Summit is crucial to ensure that the UN can indeed fully plays its role. We all have a share in this September's Summit, and a responsibility to make it a success. The Secretary-General has shown vision and leadership, even during challenging times. I highly appreciate his strength and integrity, and his engagement on this issue of reform so vital for his, and our, organisation.

The EU is determined to support his efforts by reaching out to different regional groups to understand their concerns and objectives. We believe that the inter-linkages between security, human rights, and development are relevant for everyone - that is why the Secretary General's report has such resonance.

Of course we recognise that different countries and regional groups will have different concerns. The UN must retain its universal legitimacy, so all voices must be heard, all interests taken into account. We will do our best to bridge these differences and to facilitate a satisfactory outcome for all.

Dear friends,

We must all stand up and champion reform. By devoting our collective diplomatic and intellectual power and resources to this cause, we will reap the benefits of its success for generations to come. My plea to all those involved in this debate is the same - we must rise to the challenge. Business as usual will not do. If we let this unity of purpose slip from our grasp, we will regret it for decades to come.

You may know how Norman Cousins put it:

"If the United Nations is to survive, those who represent it must bolster it; those who advocate it must submit to it; and those who believe in it must fight for it."

I am a fighter for the future of the UN and I hope you all are too.

Ref: SP05-405EN
Fuente UE: Comisión Europea
Foro NU:
Fecha: 3/6/2005

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