EU Presidency Statement - Human settlements

Allow me to address you on behalf of the European Union. The Central and Eastern European Countries associated with the European Union - Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia -, and the other associated countries Cyprus, Malta and Turkey, endorse this statement.

In June 2001 the 25th Special Session of the General Assembly conducted a review of the implementation of the Habitat Agenda.

According to the review, implementation is only a qualified success. Despite the progress made and the countless promising initiatives, a quarter of the world's population is still living below the poverty threshold.

The "declaration on human settlements in the new millennium" adopted at the 25th Session was a means of reaffirming the political will of the international community to implement the Habitat Agenda. Now that we are about to begin the follow-up, the political will of all our governments will be all the greater since that declaration clearly highlighted among the main obstacles to implementation of the Agenda the discrepancy between the commitments entered into in Istanbul and the political will to honor these commitments.

The European Union takes this opportunity to renew its commitment to the two main objectives adopted in Istanbul: "adequate shelter for all" and "sustainable human settlements development in an urbanizing world", and its support for two campaigns conducted by Habitat in favor of "secure tenure" and "urban governance". We also reaffirm our commitment to full, progressive achievement of the right to adequate housing and wholeheartedly support the task of the Special Rapporteur appointed to focus on adequate housing as an integral part of the right to a decent standard of living.

The follow-up to the General Assembly Special Session can only bear fruit if all the players are fully involved. The European Union has high expectations of the role to be played by the local authorities, including within the Advisory Committee on Local Authorities, and welcomes the measures taken by the Executive Director of the Centre for Human Settlements, Ms Anna Tibaijuka, to set up the urban forum.

The European Union also has high expectations of the Task Manager System, which should be fully exploited in order to take into account the multidisciplinary aspect of the Habitat Agenda. Without effective interinstitutional coordination, the implementation of the Habitat Agenda is bound to remain incomplete.

Mr. President,

The preparations for the Johannesburg Summit on sustainable development will offer a unique opportunity to exploit all the synergies between the Habitat Agenda and Agenda 21. At a time when half the world's population lives in cities, reinforcing the urban and local dimension of sustainable development is becoming a matter of urgency. The local authorities, as a large group identified in Agenda 21, must participate fully in the preparations and in the Summit itself. They should also be fully involved in drafting the national reports and national development strategies under Chapter 7 of Agenda 21 on promoting sustainable human settlements development.

We invite all our partners and the organizations in the UN system to ensure that the urban and local dimension of sustainable development is fully taken into account during the preparations for the Word Summit on Sustainable Development.

Thank you for your attention.

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