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EU Presidency Statement - Major UN conferences and summits

Mr. President,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union.

The acceding countries, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, and Slovenia, the associated countries Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey declare that they align themselves with this statement.

We welcome in its general lines the proposal presented by the Bureau concerning the time frame and the substantive issues of our work program to be discussed and decided by this group this week. We appreciate the Bureau's efforts to elaborate further both aspects of our work and we look forward to working together to complete our mission. We also agree with the G77 that the Secretariat should provide us regularly with short background papers that set out the key issues and the challenges without reopening the substance of the major conferences.

We believe that following the cycle of Conferences over the past decade, time has come to bring the mobilizing force of and follow-up to the major Summits and Conferences into the programme of the UN, thereby contributing to the implementation of the internationally agreed development goals.

We all agree that the group's work is a major priority. Because our work is complex, it is vital to get the organization of our work right. That's why the work of this week is crucial. We should structure it to ensure predictability but also flexibility.

Mr. President,

The resolution 57/270, which is the source of our mandate, provides us with certain key guidelines, cited below, that we should always keep in mind to facilitate and promote our work:

• The internationally agreed development goals provide a comprehensive basis for action at all levels with the key objectives of
  • 
    
  • poverty eradication
  • sustained economic growth
  • sustainable development
  • and improving the living conditions of people everywhere.
  
  
• While each UN conference has its thematic unity, major UN conferences and summits should be viewed as interlinked and contributing to an integrated framework for the implementation of the internationally agreed development goals.
  
  
• The work of the group should be fair and balanced and should respect the principle of multilateralism
  
  
• It should also produce concrete recommendations and thus contribute to the implementation of the internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the UN Millennium Declaration.
  
  
• The process of integrated and coordinated follow-up of the outcomes of the major UN conferences and summits should not include renegotiation of any outcomes of those conferences.
  
  
• The working group will submit proposals on how best to address the review of the implementation of the outcomes of the major UN conferences and summits, including its format and periodicity bearing in mind the need to recognize the active role of all relevant stakeholders in such implementation.

We agree with you, Mr. President, when you said in your opening address of Jan.27th that our task is not to devise a new architecture or philosophical approach but simple and practical recommendations that will make our work more relevant. The EU would be flexible to work on that basis. We have of course many questions to ask concerning the scope and content of these issues and we will mention a few that immediately come to mind:

• What ground should we aim to cover under item A and what should be the role in this respect of the cross cutting themes?
  
  
• What should we discuss under item C ? Monitoring?
  
  
• Is that list of six items the sequence in which we should work or should we change it? The EU will be flexible on this point as it sees this list as an indicative list of topics to discuss but not necessary in that order.
  
  
• Another question is how to engage all relevant stakeholders in our work. Should we have hearings where they can offer their views?

Mr. President,

This is an important and complex exercise. We should conduct it in an open and constructive dialogue. We should begin with a definition of a work programme, then ask questions that help us define the issues we need to discuss. We should not begin with answers or texts to negotiate. In that spirit we look forward to support you and the other members of the Bureau and working with friends from other groups.

I thank you, Sir.

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• EU Presidency Statement - Major UN conferences and summits (24/2/2003)
• EU Presidency Statement - Major UN conferences and summits (27/1/2003)
• EU Presidency Statement - UN conferences and summits (31/10/2002)