Summary: EU Speaking Points - Ad Hoc Working Group on GA Revitalization (New York, 26 April 2006)
Ad Hoc Working Group on GA Revitalization, 7th Session; Statement by Ambassador Gerhard Pfanzelter, Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations, 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 final debate devoted to the agenda and working methods of the GA.
• Building upon what we said in our previous interventions let me briefly set out some ideas shared by the European Union regarding today's topic.
Working Methods and Agenda of the General Assembly
A. GA Agenda
1. Reexamination and Streamlining
The EU believes that a shorter agenda of the GA dealing with issues of real importance could allow for more in depth-discussions and lead to greater impact of GA decisions. Since agenda items are added on a regular basis it would seem natural to equally withdraw items in order to keep a manageable balance of work load. While lack of political will to eliminate agenda items seems to be the main obstacle, the EU is convinced that further bi- and triennialization as well as clustering of agenda
items might be a more realistic and feasible way of structuring the GA agenda in a workable way.
The EU would therefore welcome an invitation to the President of the General Assembly to make proposals for further bi- and triennialization and clustering of agenda items of the customary agenda in consultation with the Secretary-General and with concerned Member States and for consideration by the General Committee.
2. Monitoring Mechanism for implementation of resolutions
The EU believes that the recently established database on existing mandates provides a useful and necessary tool to all UN member states to effectively exercise their role as custodians of their own mandates. With additional information on the implementation status of resolutions as indicated in para. 37 and 38 of the SG's report "Mandating and delivering" monitoring would then be greatly facilitated for all UN member states. The EU is of the opinion that this online registry serves as a good
example of the principles of ownership, openness, transparency and inclusiveness.
Since an evaluation of the implementation status of all existing mandates may take some time, we reiterate our suggestion that the Secretariat may provide an annual chart - similar to the one issued for this working group - on the implementation status of resolutions pertaining to GA revitalization. These updates could help promote the implementation of these resolutions.
B. GA Working Methods
1. Oral statements
As mentioned in previous interventions we would encourage Member States to make concise oral statements no longer than ten minutes and to distribute longer statements in written form.
2. GA rules of procedure
In the short term, a consolidated and updated version of the GA's rules and procedures should be made available in all official languages, both in print and online. We also support the proposal by the SG in his recent report on Mandate Review 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 the long term, we would ecourage a study of the rules of
procedure of the GA and compare them with best practices of other international organizations.
C. Rationalization of the work of Main Committees and other subsidiary bodies
1. Agenda and working methods
We acknowledge with appreciation that according to the Secretariat paper of 13 March the Main Committees have implemented most of the measures outlined in para. 3 of GA resolution 58/316 such as adopting provisional programs, enhancing their web sites, holding interactive debates or holding meetings between the incoming and outgoing Bureaux.
The EU believes that rationalization of the Main Committee's agenda and working methods is an ongoing process and therefore calls on all Main Committees to consider clustering and merging agenda items, to draft concise and action-oriented resolutions or to reconsider the amount of time allotted to particular agenda items on an annual basis. Collaboration with other Main Committees' Bureaux should be improved.
2. Joint debates
Building upon the recommendations of GA resolution 57/270B we could consider holding, on a trial basis, joint debates of the Second and Third Committees on relevant interconnected agenda items. We encourage the General Committee to study the possibility of joint debates.
3. Rationalization of the work of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations
Since the surge in UN Peacekeeping has been sustained for years the EU believes that reconsideration of the working methods of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations would be desirable. With nearly 90.000 civilian, military and police UN Peacekeepers deployed in currently 15 Peacekeeping Operations the EU shares the view that peacekeeping issues would merit more attention from the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations than once a year. Rather than focusing mainly on drafting a
report more time should be spent on thematic debates within this Committee. Hence, we suggest shortening the spring session of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations which should continue to be focused on a report reviewing UN Peacekeeping. The time freed up could be allocated to additional short sessions of the Special Committee dedicated to in-depth discussions of substantive UN Peacekeeping issues.
D. Role of the General Committee
1. Strengthened advisory role
Since the General Committee comprises the President of the GA including his 21 Vice-Presidents and the six Chairmen of the Main Committees, it is in a privileged position to have an overall view of the distribution of work among the Main Committees as well as their work progress. We encourage the General Committee to effectively use its powers to recommend on a regular basis reassignments of items among Main Committees or to inform the GA on duplicative work between the GA Plenary and its Main
Committees and to propose ways how to overcome such duplication. We also encourage the General Committee to more vigorously assess requests for additional agenda items.
2. Bi- and triennialization or clustering of agenda items
We note that according to the Secretariat's chart the General Committee has not made any recommendations for bi- and triennialization or clustering of agenda items since the adoption of GA resolution 58/316. We therefore strongly encourage the General Committee to make proposals on a regular basis for further bi- and triennialization and clustering of agenda items of the GA plenary as well as of the Main Committees upon a possible recommendation of the President of the GA.
E. Elections
Optical scanners for counting votes
The EU would welcome specific information on the status of implementation of OP 15 of resolution 59/313 on the recommended consideration of optical scanners in the voting procedure.
Information on the use of existing technology for electronic ballot counting in other intergovernmental bodies as well as a cost-benefit analysis by the Secretariat would be beneficial.
F. Documentation
Means to reduce documentation
Streamlining and reducing documentation would benefit both, delegations by enabling them to retrieve more quickly relevant information as well as the Secretariat by freeing up resources for other important tasks.
To this end the EU encourages the Secretariat to submit analytical and concise reports. Furthermore we welcome the suggestions made by the Secretary General in para. 30 and 31 of his report "Mandating and delivering" such as biannual core policy reports on the UN's priority areas, references to documentation already provided by UN agencies or programs, strict page limits for documentation to be submitted by member states or standard formats for documentation.
G. Acknowledgements and outlook
• Finally, on behalf of the EU I wish to thank you, Ambassador Silkalna and Ambassador Alsaidi, for your excellent work and structured guidance as Co-chairs of this ad hoc working group.
• The EU looks forward to a timely provision of the working group's report and hopes that the GA may act upon this report's recommendations in due course.
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