EU Presidency Speaking Points - Ad Hoc Working Group on UN General Assembly Revitalization

Ad Hoc Working Group on UN General Assembly Revitalization, 3rd Session; Statement by Minister Alexander Marschik, Deputy Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations, on behalf of the European Union.


Distinguished Co-chairs,

On behalf of the European Union I would like to thank you for convening this third meeting of the ad hoc working group on the revitalization of the GA.

We thank the Secretariat for its note of 13 March regarding the work of the Main Committees on revitalization. This note provides us with a helpful tool for our work in addition to the Secretariat's background note and implementation chart of 2 March.

Let me briefly comment, inter alia, on some of the issues which - according to the Secretariat notes - have only been partially implemented or not put into practice at all.

• Review of the agenda:
  
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  • A shorter agenda should increase the impact of each GA decision or resolution. To this end we recall our suggestion for a request to the President of the General Assembly to make proposals for further bi- and triennialization, clustering and elimination of agenda items of the customary agenda in consultation with the Secretary-General and with concerned Member States and for consideration by the General Committee.
    
  • In this context we note that according to the Secretariat's chart the General Committee has not made any recommendations for bi- and triennialization, clustering or elimination of agenda items since the adoption of GA resolution 58/316. We should encourage the General Committee to make such recommendations to the GA on a regular basis.
    
  
  
  
• Working methods of the General Assembly:
  
  • Para. 9 of GA resolution 58/126 calls for the consideration of mechanisms to better monitor the follow-up of GA resolutions. The EU has proposed that the Secretariat could be requested for an annual implementation chart regarding resolutions on GA revitalization. These updates could help promote the implementation of these resolutions.
    
  • The EU suggests that the GA may hold more interactive debates on issues of global relevance and urgency. The EU welcomes the proposal by the current President of the GA of such an interactive debate on the topic of "Health and Development".
    
  • The EU believes that the volume of documentation should be reduced by requesting consolidated reports from the Secretariat. To this end we would encourage that the Secretary General together with the President of the GA and the Chairmen of the Main Committees consider at the end of the main part of each session of the GA the consolidation of reports on related subjects.
    
  
  
  
• Role and authority of the GA:
  
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  • Among those measures adopted in recent GA resolutions but not yet implemented the EU would support recalling the GA's invitation to the Security Council to issue special subject-oriented reports as well as to submit more analytical annual reports.
    
  • We appreciate that according to the Secretariat's implementation chart the Presidents of the GA are regularly briefed by the Presidents of the Security Council. Information of Member States by the Presidents of the GA about substantial issues raised during such briefings as outlined in para. 5 of GA resolution 58/126 could be useful.
    
  • The EU further welcomes that the Presidents of the GA, the Security Council and the ECOSOC meet periodically to ensure increased cooperation, coordination and complementarity. We would suggest that the Secretary General may attend such tripartite meetings in order to intensify the link between the Secretariat and Member States. The EU believes that information of Member States by the President of the GA about substantial issues raised during such meetings would enhance transparency and ensure better coordination between the principal organs.
    
  
  
  
• Practices and working methods of the Main Committees:
  
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  • We note with appreciation that according to the Secretariat paper of 13 March the Main Committees have implemented most of the measures outlined in para. 3 of GA resolution 58/316 such as adopting provisional programs, enhancing their web sites, holding interactive debates or holding meetings between the incoming and outgoing Bureaux. It appears that those measures not implemented are due to the specificities of the respective Committees such as the lack of a provisional program of work for the Fifth Committee or the absence of interactive debates and "question times" in the formal part of the Sixth Committee.
    
  • We welcome the Main Committees' practical proposals and their partial implementation regarding the rationalization of their agendas and working methods as described in the Secretariat note of 13 March. The EU believes that some of these Committee-specific proposals such as to cluster and merge agenda items, to draft concise and action-oriented resolutions, to request consolidated reports or to closer collaborate with other Main Committees' Bureaux could benefit all Main Committees.
    
  • The work of the Second and Third Committee correlates and overlaps to a non-negligible degree. Building upon the recommendations of GA resolution 57/270B we could consider holding, on a trial basis, joint debates of the Second and Third Committee on respective interconnected agenda items. This could use synergies and better interlink the work of both Committees.
    
  
  
  
• Future schedule of the ad hoc working group:
  
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  • The EU believes that thematic discussions would facilitate our future work.
    
  • Since the President of the GA plays a pivotal role in GA revitalization we would welcome his participation in one of these thematic discussions.
    
  • The EU would appreciate if the co-chairs could indicate the further schedule for this ad hoc working group.
    
    
  
  

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• EU Speaking Points - Ad Hoc Working Group on GA Revitalization  (26/4/2006)
• EU Speaking Points - Ad Hoc Working Group on GA Revitalization (6/4/2006)
• EU Presidency Statement - Human Rights Council, Explanation of Vote (15/3/2006)
• EU Presidency Statement - Fifth Committee, Peacebuilding Support Office  (15/3/2006)
• EU Presidency Statement - Fifth Committee: Standardized Access Control (14/3/2006)
• EU Presidency Statement - UN Management Reform  (7/3/2006)
• EU Presidency Statement - Fifth Committee, Programme of Work  (6/3/2006)
• EU Speaking Points - GA Revitalization (3/3/2006)
• EU Speaking Points - General Assembly Revitalization  (16/2/2006)