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EU Presidency Statement - Outcomes of the major United Nations Conferences and Summits

I have the honor to take the floor on behalf of the European Union. The Candidate Countries Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and Croatia*, the Countries of the Stabilization and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro align themselves with this statement.

We welcome this joint debate of the related topics of integrated follow up of the major UN conferences and summits and the follow up of the Millennium Declaration. These issues are indeed very closely linked, especially in 2005, when we will review them together. The joint debate is in the spirit of General Assembly resolution 57/270 B, the continued implementation of which we consider very important. On the follow up of the major UN summits and conferences, we agree with the Secretary-General that these were indeed the basis of the MDGs, and that their follow up should remain closely linked to the follow up of the Millennium Declaration. We welcome the Secretary-General's report on the implementation of the Millennium Declaration and share its findings. We appreciate the balanced overview of progress on implementing the Millennium Declaration and achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The report shows progress made, but also that there is no room for complacency.

The year 2005 will be one of tremendous opportunity. When we review the implementation of the Millennium Declaration at the summit in September, we will have a chance to devise solutions to the major issues the world has to deal with. At that meeting, we will in particular have the chance:

• to re-energise multilateralism in an increasingly interconnected and complex world, with a strong and more effective United Nations system at the centre,
  
  
• to recommit ourselves to achieve our goals, in particular in the economic and social area, including on sustainable development,
  
  
• to state new guidelines, policies and arrangements, where necessary, to deal with the emerging challenges and threats to peace and security, including violent conflict and terrorism.

The EU agrees with the Secretary-General that this review should indeed be a summit. We need this review in order to make sure our instruments are on par with the many and major challenges of the 21st century. And of course we have major challenges to face on development, peace and security, environmental and social issues and human rights. We, the European Union, are willing to recommit ourselves to the agenda set at the UN. We are willing to consider and suggest steps, whether on policies or institutions, that bring attaining our goals closer. And we are also willing to be ambitious in view of the needs. As the great Michelangelo once stated:

" The greater danger --- is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it."

1. Outcome

The Summit should be comprehensive and discuss development, peace and security, environment, social issues and human rights and the changes needed to achieve our goals and effective multilateralism. The outcome should be a succinct, comprehensive and politically meaningful declaration focused on implementation, endorsing progress that has been made and containing a clear reaffirmation of the goals set, as well as commitments to respond to problems that need to be addressed by the world community.

More specifically, the outcome should contain the following.

• A clear set of guidelines and policies on the challenges of collective security in its broadest sense.
  
  
• Agreements to enhance our implementation of the commitments undertaken in the Millennium Declaration and through the Millennium Development Goals, as well as through the major UN conferences. We should acknowledge the crucial linkages between implementing the Millennium Declaration, achieving the Millennium Development Goals and the follow up of UN summits and conferences.
  
  
• Decisions on organisational reforms needed to helps us achieve our goals.

2. Preparatory phase

The EU welcomes and supports the report by the UN Secretary-General on modalities. It has clarified the process. We also welcome the position taken by the president of the UN General Assembly on the process at the recent informals. We can distinguish the following phases in the preparation of the event.

• In December 2004, we should adopt a resolution on modalities. We now await the draft resolution of the president of the UN General Assembly that will help us to set the stage for the Summit and to settle some key organisational issues before the end of 2004.
  
  
• From January - March 2005, we should enter into informal exchanges of views on the major issues at stake, including those identified in the High Level Panel report and the Millennium Project Report. Obviously these reports and the discussions surrounding them will provide important input to the preparations for the summit, in particular as input for the report of the UN Secretary-General, which is due in March 2005. They should be informally discussed both in New York, in capitals and at the regional level, in order to test the waters for the steps proposed.
  
  
• In March 2005, the presentation of the UN Secretary-General's report for the event will help us frame discussions. The Secretary-General hopefully will also indicate how we take the recommendations of the High Level Panel and other documents forward, and which recommendations in particular need attention from the summit. The report should also clearly demonstrate the interconnectedness between the agenda of the major UN conferences, which underpinned the Millennium Declaration and the MDGs. After all, even though the major UN conferences were of course not limited to MDGs, the road to the MDGs goes through places like Monterrey, Johannesburg, Beijing, Copenhagen and Cairo.
  
  
• Some time after the presentation of the report, there should be more consultations, transparant and inclusive, on the basis of the previous informal discussions. On the basis of elements suggested by the UN Secretary-General in his report next year, the president could in due course present a draft declaration to member states. There should be a comprehensive process of consultations, leading, in the final stage, to one process to negotiate the outcome document. We welcome the leadership role of the president of the UN General Assembly in the full preparatory process.
  
  
• Preparations should make full use of existing mechanisms, that can provide input. The High Level Dialogue of the UN General Assembly on Financing for Development, the high level meeting of the General Assembly on HIV/AIDS, the ECOSOC Spring Dialogue with the Bretton Woods Institutions and WTO, the 2005 substantive session of the Economic and Social Council, the 2005 UNEP governing council and the functional and regional Commissions, should play an important role. Statements or president summaries could include a focus on 2005 and give messages to the high level event. The 2005 Spring meetings of the Bretton Woods Institutions should also be part of the input on the development side of the 2005 event.
  
  
• Financing for Development in particular is essential in the comprehensive review of progress made towards fulfilling the Millennium Declaration and achieving the MDGs. We welcome the report of the Secretary-General in this regard and feel it is a good basis to build on. The meetings in 2005 which address FFD will convey important messages. We see value in addressing Financing for Development at a major meeting in the preparatory phase, as well as providing for a specific focus on Financing for Development in the context of the summit itself. The Secretary-General's report and its recommendations provide a good basis to achieve closure on this before the end of 2004 in the resolution on the summit. We look forward to other countries' comments on these proposals.

3. The summit itself

As General Assembly resolution 58/291 mandates and as the report on modalities states, the summit should be a high-level plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly with the participation of the heads of state and government. We also support the suggested dates. In order to ensure maximum participation of all stakeholders, the EU would welcome examining innovative ways of involving them, including civil society, the business sector and the international financial and trade institutions. The proposal for hearings is a very welcome one. We would be ready to consider building on this, for example by providing for some civil society participation in the summit round tables.

4. Conclusion

The EU is committed to a good outcome and will in particular continue, through its own external policy and practice, to see what further improvements can be made to ensure that the objectives of achieving the MDGs are fully taken into account. I spoke about the opportunities that the Summit in September 2005 has to offer. But the consequences of not seizing these opportunities are very clear to us as well. We need to reinvigorate our multilateral system in view of the challenges ahead. We need a United Nations organisation that is as effective as possible. Mahatma Gandhi once said:

"A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history."

I trust we will be these determined spirits and that our mission will be making the best use of the opportunities '2005' has to offer for achieving our aims. That is the least that the struggle against poverty, injustice, environmental degradation, terrorism, conflict and insecurity requires.


* Croatia continues to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process

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• EU Presidency Statement - Implementation of and follow-up to major UN Conferences and Summits - ECOSOC (15/7/2004)