EU Presidency Statement - Charter Committee on assistance to third States affected by sanctions

Mr. Chairman,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The countries of Central and Eastern Europe associated with the European Union, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia, the associated countries Cyprus and Malta, and the EFTA country belonging to the European Economic Area, Norway, align themselves with this statement.

Mr. Chairman,

Pursuant to General Assembly Resolution 56/86 the Special Committee was asked to consider, on a priority basis, the question of implementation of provisions of the Charter of the UN related to assistance to third States affected by sanctions under Chapter VII.

We would like to recall the position of the European Union already presented in our general statement to the Committee.

Regarding the issue of third States affected by sanctions, the European Union has been constant in supporting that all efforts should be made in order to reduce the negative effects that sanctions may have on non-targeted States, without undermining the efficiency of the sanctions regimes themselves.

Important steps have been taken by the Secretary-General on this matter, such as 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 international assistance to the affected third States. They 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 those recommendations concern the Secretariat which, inter alia, 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 detailed views of the Secretary-General on the Expert Group´s suggestions, in particular, on their political, financial and administrative feasibility, taking into account the result of the working group on sanctions of the Security Council. The European Union believes that it would be difficult for the Special Committee to have a substantial and detailed discussion of the recommendations before we have 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 January 29, 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 affected third States.

We welcome the work carried out by the Security Council Working Group on Sanctions and look forward to its agreed findings. The European Union is also pleased to note the role of ECOSOC in monitoring economic assisstance to third States especially affected by economic problems related to sanctions.

There have been a number of important initiatives outside the United Nations framework to help develop targeted sanctions as a regular tool of the Security Council. Starting in 1998, with the pioneering seminar on smarter sanctions in London, further seminars have focused on the effectiveness of financial sanctions (the Intelaken process sponsored by Switzerland) and on the subject of arms embargoes and travel sanctions, including flight bans (the Bonn-Berlin process). A similar initiative in Stockholm will continue work on the implementation and monitoring of targeted sanctions, as well as on assistance to States in their implementation of sanctions regimes.

The European Union hopes that the Members of the Security Council and the UN Secretariat will make use of the recommendations emerging from these initiatives in their consideration of issues related to sanctions.

Thank you.

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• EU Presidency Statement - General Debate of the Special Committee of the UN Charter (18/3/2002)