EU Presidency Statement - CSD

Summary: January 27, 2003: Statement by H.E. Ambassador Adamantios Th. Vassilakis, Permanent Representative of Greece to the UN, on behalf of the European Union. FIRST MEETING OF THE 11TH SESSION OF THE COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT - ELECTION OF THE NEW BUREAU OF CSD11. FIFTY-SEVENTH SESSION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY - SECOND COMMITTEE (New York)

Mr. President,

On behalf of the European Union, the acceding countries Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, and the associated countries Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey that align themselves with this statement allow me, upon your election to the Bureau of CSD11, to congratulate you and the other members of the Bureau and wish you every success.

I would also like to express sincere appreciation and thanks to the President and members of the outgoing Bureau for the hard work and the results achieved during their tenure. They completed successfully the momentous endeavor of preparation and realization of the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

Mr. President,

We are all aware of the difficult task you are undertaking, as the 11th Session follows a Summit which identified new challenges and opportunities for sustainable development. Indeed the WSSD marked also a new era for the Commission, in which the latter should find its right position in order to contribute to the achievement of the Johannesburg targets, timetables and objectives, including the Millennium Development Goals in the overarching framework of the Millennium Declaration.

At this juncture it is necessary to agree on a long-term program of work, building on the commitments undertaken in Johannesburg and putting into effect Chapter XI of the Plan of Implementation. This is our chance for supplying sustainable development with a solid base in the functional level that will effectively link local, national and regional implementation of the Summit outcomes with the internationally agreed commitments.

Mr. President,

The EU has already expressed some concrete ideas on the future work of CSD that I am happy to recall here with this occasion:

We believe that an active and more meaningful involvement of all stakeholders in the preparation and the follow-up of the Sessions is of paramount importance.
The principles of flexibility and predictability should be kept well in mind in the drafting of the program.
The non-negotiating sessions should be used in order to sharpen the political focus on specific issues and fill gaps in the implementation. The negotiating ones, organized at ministerial level, should be steered to short action-oriented decisions.
Partnerships should be encouraged, through sharing of lessons learnt from progress already made in specific cases of successful ongoing partnerships and by establishing credible, flexible and, publicly accessible reporting mechanisms.

We are looking forward to addressing constructively all of these issues with our colleagues, under your able guidance, and forming a good work program for the future of the Commission and of the sustainable development agenda.

I thank you Mr. President.

Ref: PRES03-002EN
EU source: EU Presidency
UN forum: Second Committee (Economic and Financial Affairs, Environment)
Date: 27/1/2003

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