EU Speaking Points - GA Revitalization

Ad Hoc Working Group on General Assembly Revitalization, 8th Session; Statement by Mr Christoph Wieland, Attaché at the Austrian Mission to the UN, on behalf of the European Union.


Distinguished Co-chairs,

• On behalf of the European Union I would like to thank you for convening this working group's eighth meeting devoted to discussing your draft report and draft recommendations.

• I commend you for your work and particularly for your draft report and its draft recommendations for elements for a draft resolution which we believe give a generally balanced account of our previous discussions on the various clusters.

• However, not all the EU's major concerns have been included in the drafts. Let me now comment on the drafts and on those issues which are important to us and which we would like to be included in your drafts.

Draft report:

I) Role and Authority of the General Assembly

• Although many delegations as we believe have mentioned that thematic debates on issues of global concern would be very beneficial we regret that this issue has not found its way into the draft report. The EU supports the idea of thematic debates and has made concrete proposals in this regard and requests the inclusion of these proposals in the draft report

• While we welcome the recommendations in para. 16 for a more analytical annual report of the Security Council (SC) presented to the General Assembly (GA) before the commencement of the GA's general debate, we believe that a number of delegations recalled that periodic special subject-oriented reports of the SC would be highly welcome. This latter demand could have been integrated into the draft report.

• We believe that many delegations pointed out that the transition between the Offices of the President of the GA should be improved by providing the incoming President's Office with the opportunity to retain a senior professional from the outgoing President's Office. Ambassador Onanga of the current and previous President's Office serves as a good example of a successful transfer of institutional memory within the Office of the President of the GA. We suggest to include in the report a recommendation for the continuation of this practice.

• As to the idea of a monitoring mechanism for the implementation of resolutions in para. 20 we would like to point out, that in our view only "some" but not "many" delegations as suggested in the draft text endorsed this idea of a monitoring mechanism.

II) Role of the General Assembly in the selection of the Secretary-General

• With regard to the selection of the next Secretary-General and the reference to GA res. 51/241 in para. 28 of the draft report we deem it important that both principles - on regional rotation and gender equality - should be mentioned on an equal footing.


Draft recommendations for elements for a draft resolution:

Cluster I: Role and Authority of the General Assembly

• In para. 3 of the draft recommendations the EU suggests to use the wording "[The General Assembly] Reaffirms its role as set out in the UN Charter" instead of selectively enumerating certain paragraphs of the Charter. The proposed wording would reflect the GA's functions in a more comprehensive way.

• As to para. 7 of the draft recommendations we recall our suggestion that the SC's annual reports could, inter alia, analyze to which degree Security Council resolutions have been implemented, what have been major obstacles to such implementation and how these obstacles could be overcome.

• In view of the fact that the President's Office has been provided with three and the Department for General Assembly Affairs and Conference Management (DGACM) with two additional posts beginning at the 59th Session (cf. para. 10 of GA res.58/126) and two additional senior level posts for the Office of the President of the GA beginning with the 60th Session (cf. para. 3b of GA res. 59/313) we do not believe that there are reasons for the time being to consider further requests for additional posts. In view of any changes with regard to an enhanced role of and increasing demand on the President of the GA we would need to carefully consider any requests for additional resources of the President's office.

• One possibility to strengthen the role and authority of the GA would be to increase its external visibility. This is why the EU suggests including the following wording in the draft resolution "[The General Assembly] Encourages Presidents of the General Assembly to increase their public visibility including through enhanced contacts with representatives of media and civil society thus promoting the role and authority of the GA".

• As mentioned previously with regard to the draft report, we suggest adding at the end of para. 10 that the outgoing President of the GA might also "encourage that one member of his staff is available to continue his or her work in the Office of the next President of the GA".

• As to the role of civil society in para. 14 the EU suggests to reformulate the paragraph so that it reads as follows: "[The General Assembly] decides to enhance its interaction with civil society, including NGOs, particularly from developing countries, the private sector, academia and local authorities thereby building upon the Cardoso report and to encourage these actors to channel their input through informal thematic discussions of the GA's Main Committees".


Cluster II: Selection of the Secretary-General

• We have doubts as to the beneficial effects of a deadline in para. 22 for the presentation of candidacies for the post of Secretary-General but we agree with the time frame outlined in GA Res. 51/241. We propose alternative wording for para. 22 which could read as follows: "Encourages candidates to meet with Member States in order to present their candidacy, for instance, through informal meetings with regional and other groups."

Cluster III: Working methods

• The EU underlined in its statements the positive effect of improved working methods on the effective and efficient functioning of the GA. For this reason the EU suggests to add at the end of para. 25 of the draft resolution the SG's proposal that the Office of Legal Affairs should make precedents and past practice available in the public domain with respect to rules and practices of the intergovernmental bodies of the Organization.

• In order to enhance the development of best practices among the Main Comittees we suggest adding in para. 26 the words "and recommends the Bureaux of the Main Committees to enhance their cooperation."

• We would welcome if the resolution would encourage Member States to make concise oral statements no longer than ten minutes and to distribute longer statements in written form.

• We welcome para. 27 with the proposal that the Second and Third Committees may hold joint debates on relevant interconnected agenda items. We believe that the General Committee should generally play a greater role in managing the work of the GA and its Main Committees and should particularly be tasked with elaborating proposals on joint debates of the Second and Third Committees. We propose to amend para. 27 so that it reads as follows: "Requests the General Committee to elaborate proposals on joint debates of the Second and Third Committees on relevant interconnected agenda items and urges the Second and Third Committees to thoroughly consider such proposals."

• If Member States will adopt a resolution requesting the Secretariat to draw up an annual chart on the implementation of GA resolutions, we believe that with such a chart providing concise and sufficient information an additional report as requested in para. 32 would be unnecessarily duplicative. The EU is and remains committed to the revitalization of the GA but given the burdensome reporting requirements of the Secretariat the EU aims to avoid duplicative reporting requirements. Hence, we regard such an implementation chart as an alternative but not additional reporting device and therefore propose to delete para. 32.

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• EU Presidency Statement - Revitalization of the UN General Assembly (21/7/2006)
• EU Speaking Points - GA Revitalization (29/6/2006)
• EU Speaking Points - Ad Hoc Working Group on GA Revitalization  (19/4/2006)
• EU Speaking Points - Ad Hoc Working Group on GA Revitalization (6/4/2006)
• EU Speaking Points - GA Revitalization (3/3/2006)