EU Commissioner Urpilainen travels to Geneva to strengthen engagement with multilateral partners

Commissioner for International Partnerships Jutta Urpilainen will travel to Geneva, Switzerland, on 23 March for a two-day mission. The objective of the visit is to discuss with senior representatives of United Nations (UN) entities and non-governmental organizations multilateral solutions to issues such as global health, the Humanitarian-Development-Peace nexus, and recovery and resilience. On 23 March, Commissioner Urpilainen will meet Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), to deepen the EU–WHO partnership, particularly in support of local manufacturing and access to vaccines, medicines and health technologies in Africa. On 24 March, she will meet the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, to address the human rights situation in Ukraine, Ethiopia, and Afghanistan, and the EU-OHCHR partnership. The Commissioner will also have bilateral meetings with Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Vitorino, Director-General of the International Organization for Migration, and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization. The international response to the war in Ukraine will be central to the discussions, together with the continued support of the European Union to an international rules-based order with the UN at its core.