EU Presidency Statement - 'The Security Council and regional organizations'

Mr. President,

Since this is the first time we are speaking under your Presidency, allow me first to congratulate you on the assumption of your duties. I would also like to extend our congratulations to the previous President, Guinea, for their excellent job.

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, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia, the associated countries Bulgaria and Romania declare that they align themselves with this statement.

The European Union recognizes the increasingly important role of regional arrangements or agencies in the field of the maintenance of international peace security and welcomes the consideration of this issue by the Security Council.

In recent years a number of regional arrangements, organizations or agencies have created institutional capacities for early warning and conflict prevention in order to respond to the proliferation of internal disputes that may pose a threat to the regional or international stability.

The EU strongly supports these developments and, since 1999, has been making a concerted effort to develop its organizational capability to respond effectively to these challenges. Three principles are guiding us:

First, and foremost, is the recognition that primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and stability lies with the United Nations. In developing a crisis management capacity, the EU aims to support the Security Council in carrying out its responsibilities under the UN Charter.

These responsibilities, as we all know, are onerous. Addressing the challenges of conflict prevention, management and resolution requires an array of instruments: political, military, economic, social, cultural. We, in the European Union, are particularly conscious of this fact. Originating as a conflict prevention experiment, in the aftermath of two World Wars, and with the determination to prevent regional wars in the future- European integration brings our Member States together in a multitude of ways.

The second guiding principle of EU crisis management, therefore, is that it must include a wide range of instruments, military as well as civilian. This is why we have given as much emphasis in the civilian side as in the military domain, to establishing priority areas and setting targets in them.

The third guiding principle for EU crisis response is that our efforts must bring real added value to international crisis management. Our effort to develop capacity can only bring benefit if it contributes to our collective global effort to respond effectively to threats to international peace and security.

These principles have shaped our efforts since 1999. They are behind the establishment of four priority areas for EU civilian crisis management capacity: police, the rule of law, civilian administration and civil protection. The capacities can be put at the disposal of EU crisis management operations or for the UN or OSCE operations.

Mr. President,

As a successful example of regional cooperation herself, contributing to peace and stability, the EU is committed to building and sustaining mutually reinforcing and effective relationships with the UN as well as with other regional organizations in prevention, management and resolution of conflicts. This requires action at the political level, in terms of capacity building of partner organizations and through operational interaction.

At the political level, dialogue with the UN and with other regional organizations takes place in a wide range of different contexts. Peace and security issues can be raised in such discussions, although in the case of regional organizations the scope will depend on the specific mandate of the organization concerned.

At the level of capacity building, key aspect remains the relevant need of the regional organizations in terms of early warning, conflict prevention and peacekeeping.

In relation to operational interaction and, as foreseen in the EU programme for the Prevention of Violent Conflicts, the EU, through the European Commission, is intensifying its practical cooperation with the UN system and other regional and sub-regional organizations. The list of possible examples is long, ranging from support to UN peacebuilding efforts through the UN Trust for Preventive Action, in order to facilitate early UN action in the whole range of preventive diplomacy , to support various regional projects like the African Union Observer Mission in Burundi or the Horn of Africa initiative.

In this respect, a regional EU Conference on Conflict Prevention - "Partners in Prevention" - was hosted in Helsingborg, Sweden, in August 2002. The Conference brought together the UN, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and NATO to discuss how to strengthen capabilities and co-operation in order to prevent violent conflicts, in response to the call from the UN Secretary-General, in his report on the Prevention of Armed Conflict, to arrange regional workshops in order to discuss the regional dimensions of co-operation in conflict prevention. High officials from the African Union, ECOWAS and SADC also attended the Conference with the aim of stimulating increased interaction between the United Nations and other organisations with the possibility of similar such meetings in other regions. The chairman's conclusions were forwarded to the UN Secretary-General and will contribute to the next high-level meeting between the UN and regional organisations (July 2003).

The list of EU instruments directly or indirectly relevant to the prevention, management and resolution of conflict is long: development cooperation and external assistance, economic cooperation and trade policy instruments, humanitarian aid, social and environmental policies, diplomatic instruments such as political dialogue and mediation, as well as economic or other sanctions, and ultimately the new instruments of European Security and Defense Policy.

Mr. President,

In the pursuance of each of our goals we have set ourselves targets to be achieved by 2003. These targets involve concrete numbers of personnel which Member States have committed themselves to providing. And they also include concrete goals for rapid reaction to crises.

EUPM in Bosnia-Herzegovina is the first example of the practical possibilities of UN-EU cooperation in crisis management operations. We are committed to developing many more. We are currently exploring modalities for cooperation between the UN and the EU in the police as well as other civilian crisis management areas. And we are also looking at cooperation in the military domain too.

The responsibility of the international community, through the UN Security Council, for peace and security is indivisible. While supporting regional peacebuilding capacity, the EU and its member states significantly contribute to UN Peacekeeping through active support and participation in relevant operations and activities throughout the world, from the Balkans to Africa and Asia. We currently have more than 30000 women and men working hard for peace in UN and UN-mandated operations. The EU member states have troops, military and civilian police observers and civilian staff in all current UN peacekeeping operations. In addition to these considerable personnel and other contributions, we also provide over 40% of total peacekeeping budget. These figures manifest clearly our strong and unwavering commitment to peacekeeping, while we remain engaged in a continued dialogue with the UN aimed at further strengthening our partnership in peacekeeping.

The EU supports regional and sub-regional cooperation in Africa through assistance to AU, ECOWAS, EAC and SADC and we are also actively engaged in various initiatives aimed at enhancing the peacekeeping capacities in Africa. We encourage a close relationship between the UN and the African Union (AU) and sub-regional organisations, inter alia, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and we commend the recent efforts of these organisations in the area of peacekeeping operations in Africa.

These actions require an assessment of the needs, information sharing and coordination. The EU welcomes the Secretariat's (DPKO's) efforts to work closely with all relevant actors in Africa, at regional, sub-regional and national levels, in particular for the enhancement of the capabilities of troop contributors and in the capacity building for regional and sub-regional organisations. We welcome an active role of the UN, specifically in the areas of information-sharing, promoting transparency, mobilizing support and stimulating contacts between recipients and donors of assistance e.g. in training, equipment and logistics.

The EU strongly supports UN peacebuilding action that prevents the recurrence of conflict and ensures peace and stability in the future. In this context, we firmly believe that the UN should play a central role in post-conflict Iraq, as well as in other post-conflict situations.

Τhe EU also believes that in order to strengthen the collective security system of the United Nations System regional arrangements or agencies should enhance their role in conflict prevention and resolution. Since this requires closer and more coordinated cooperation with the UN system, we welcome any new developments in this area.

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