EU Presidency Statement - Revitalisation of work of General Assembly

EU Presidency Statement on Revitalisation of the work of the General Assembly by the Permanent Mission of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the United Nations on behalf of the European Union, Fourth Committee, New York

Mr President,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The Acceding Countries Bulgaria and Romania, the Candidate Countries Turkey and Croatia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the EFTA country Liechtenstein, as well as Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova align themselves with this declaration.

The EU strongly supports efforts to strengthen the General Assembly's role and authority, including through a greater focus on the enhancement of its work, in line with the principles and objectives outlined in the Summit Outcome Document and in last year's General Assembly resolution A/RES/59/313 on "A Strengthened and Revitalised General Assembly".

The EU is disappointed with the progress made so far in revitalisation of the General Assembly, despite the good efforts of the last two Presidents of the General Assembly and their Facilitators in pushing this issue forward.

It is important that the General Assembly continues with its efforts at revitalisation. The EU looks forward to further proposals in due course on how the President intends to revitalise the work of the General Assembly and its Committees, including through the ad hoc working group, as set out in Resolution A/RES/59/313.

The EU is grateful to previous chairmen of this Committee for their efforts to improve the Committee's work. We encourage our current chairman to follow their example. The EU remains committed to playing a full part in this Committee's discussions of how to revitalise its work and improve its working methods, including useful initiatives like holding interactive debates, rationalising the number of resolutions presented in the Committee, and considering whether the scope of the Committee's agenda could be changed or streamlined.

Thank you.


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

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