EU Presidency Statement - Report of the ECOSOC

STATEMENT BY THE UNITED KINGDOM ON BEHALF OF THE EUROPEAN UNION ON AGENDA ITEM 41: REPORT OF THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL AT THE PLENARY OF THE SIXTIETH SESSION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, New York

Mr President,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and those other European countries who align themselves with this statement.

I begin by echoing your words of sympathy and support, Mr President, to the people of Pakistan and other countries of South Asia for their suffering following the recent earthquake. The European Commission and EU member states have already made several announcements of assistance that we are providing. We look forward to taking forward this discussion and action at tomorrow's donor meeting in Geneva.

Mr President,

The European Union welcomes this report on the work of ECOSOC in 2005. We thank the Ambassador of Pakistan and his colleagues on the Bureau for the work they have done and the leadership they have provided.

ECOSOC has made an essential contribution over the past few months to an important year for the United Nations, leading to the World Summit in September. The Spring Meeting with the Bretton Woods Institutions, the WTO and UNCTAD was an important part of the preparations for discussion of Financing for Development issues at the Summit.

At the substantive session in June/July the High Level and Co-ordination segments made a valuable contribution to wider Summit preparations, on progress towards the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals.

The Operational Activities segment provided for useful discussion on how to enhance the effectiveness of UN operational activities, following last year's Triennial Comprehensive Review in the General Assembly.

Similarly the Humanitarian segment produced a positive contribution to work to promote more effective international response to humanitarian disaster, including through an assessment of lessons from the Asian Tsunami of last year.

Mr President,

The European Union particularly welcomes the decisions reached at the World Summit in September to enhance ECOSOC's system-wide role in ensuring policy coherence and co-ordination. The Ambassador of Pakistan has already outlined the main elements of those decisions.

This is not the place to go into detail. But I would like to underline the strong commitment of the European Union to implementation of the Summit decisions. We look forward to further discussion and early action to take forward this follow-up under your leadership, Mr President.

The European Union will bring forward its own proposals and comments for those discussions. We look forward to working with other member states to ensure implementation of the Summit decisions. Finally, we look forward to taking part in the forthcoming special events tomorrow and next week on the food crisis in Africa and Avian Flu.

Thank you, Mr President.

| Arriba |

• EU Presidency Statement - ECOSOC: Follow up to GA Resolution 59/250 on Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review of Operational Activities for Development of the UN System (12/7/2005)
• EU Presidency Statement - ECOSOC Co-ordination Segment: Towards achieving internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration (6/7/2005)
• EU Presidency Statement - High Level Segment of ECOSOC (30/6/2005)
• EU Presidency Statement - On Strengthening of ECOSOC (5/5/2005)
• EU Presidency Statement - ECOSOC Spring meeting (18/4/2005)