Summary: July 20, 2005: EU Presidency Statement on Item 13 of the General Segment of the July 2005 Substantive Session of the Economic and Social Council, by The Permanent Mission of the United Kingdom to the United Nations, on behalf of the European Union (New York)
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the member states of the European Union. The Acceding Countries Bulgaria and Romania, the Candidate Countries Turkey and Croatia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, and the EFTA countries Iceland and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, align
themselves with this declaration.
Mr President,
The European Union welcomes this opportunity to discuss the range of economic and environmental issues covered by item 13 of the Economic and Social Council agenda. EcoSoc has a central role to play in the follow-up to and the implementation of the outcomes of the major UN conferences and summits in the economic, social, environmental and related fields, and of the achievement of the MDGs. As we have underlined before, we believe that EcoSoc should provide clear policy guidance to the UN system
on these issues and be an institutional framework for their integrated analysis and mainstreaming. ECOSOC should also continue to support policy co-ordination and harmonisation among operational agencies as well as humanitarian agencies. The annual substantive session of EcoSoc provides a welcome opportunity to assess EcoSoc's performance in these roles.
Mr President,
I have a small number of comments to make on specific issues under this item.
With regard to the Consolidated Report on the work of the Functional Commissions (and my comments here are relevant also to EcoSoc agenda item 14), I should like to raise EU concerns that the Report focuses on economic aspects of the work of the Functional Commissions to a significantly greater extent than to social, human rights or environmental aspects. We perceive there to be an imbalance here. The EU remains strongly committed to promoting the integration of the three components of
sustainable development - economic development, social progress and environmental protection - as interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars. In this context, we reiterate that all three pillars of sustainable development are necessary for achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including the MDGs. The EU is committed to ensuring that the Functional Commissions, working within their respective mandates, pay appropriate attention to all aspects of sustainable development. We
also encourage the Functional Commissions to promote further synergy in their work. And we look forward to the proposed review of their methods of work by all the Functional Commissions.
More widely, the EU believes that EcoSoc should provide overall policy guidance to its Functional Commissions and subsidiary bodies, promoting coherence and co-ordination. It should encourage implementation of existing intergovernmental agreements and commitments, rather than seeking to reopen them. Equally, expert bodies such as the Functional Commissions should not become politicised. In this spirit, the EU endorses the outcomes of subsidiary bodies such as the Commission on Population and
Development and the Commission on Science and Technology for Development. We voted in favour of the outcome of the Statistical Commission - and would have preferred to seen that Commission's important work endorsed by consensus.
Mr President,
Last year, the European Union joined consensus in the ECOSOC decision to update UN work on international tax co-operation. We welcome the establishment of the Committee of Experts on International Co-operation in Tax Matters, and take note of the list of experts to be appointed by the Secretary General.
I shall be making a separate statement on item 13 (i), the UN Forum on Forests.
Thank you.
* Croatia continues to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.
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