EU Explanation of Vote – UN General Assembly 2nd Committee: Cooperation to combat illicit financial flows and strengthen good practices on assets return

Check against delivery

Chair, I deliver this explanation of vote on behalf of the European Union and its Member States. 

The Candidate Countries North Macedonia^*, Montenegro^*, Albania^*, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Bosnia and Herzegovina^* align themselves with this statement.

We would like to start by thanking Mssrs Rodolfo Reta Haddad (Mexico) and Frans van der Straaten (Kingdom of the Netherlands) for facilitating this resolution in a fair and balanced manner, and all delegations for their constructive engagement throughout the process. 

We believe the final text is generally well-balanced, and therefore the EU has voted in favour. At the same time, we advocated and would have preferred to see stronger language included for example on Financial Action Task Force recommendations and civil society engagement, and we regret that EU-advocated references to the safety of journalists were not retained in the final text. We would also have preferred references to “stolen assets” be replaced by more accurate language on assets derived from corruption.

While supporting the resolution text as a whole, we have objected, along with several other delegations, to the introduction of what is now OP24, relating to a special session of the Conference of the State Parties to the UN Convention against Corruption. It is very unfortunate that the proposals of the co-facilitators, who suggested the deletion of this paragraph, were not followed. This resolution cannot pre-empt a decision of the forthcoming Conference. We are thus compelled to dissociate from this paragraph.

Similarly, the EU and its Member States also state our strong concern that some provisions of the resolution text do not reach standards agreed in the Sevilla Commitment, for example as regards beneficial ownership registries. We must also thus dissociate from the language retained in OP42. 

Chair, we regret that a vote has been called on this resolution for the first time since 2021. We believe this undermines our collective efforts and the constructive spirit of consensus-building that has long been a tradition in this Committee and that has also guided this year’s negotiations on the resolution.

The EU remains firmly committed to preventing and combating illicit financial flows in all their forms, recognizing their corrosive impact on governance and sustainable development.

I thank you.
 

* North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.