Mister Chair,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.

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

First, I wish to commend the work of the co-facilitators, Ms Sole Abrahamsen from Finland and Mr Vivek Ganesh from Singapore, who have led the informal consultations with great professionalism and in the spirit of compromise. I also wish to thank the Secretariat and other delegations for their dedication and tireless work on this resolution.

The EU welcomes the adoption of this resolution. ICTs and digital technologies are crucial for sustainable development. In a spirit of compromise and to maintain the long-standing consensus on this text, the EU did not break silence on the final draft tabled by G77 for adoption.

However, we regret to see that some unilateral edits were made to two paragraphs, namely PP22 and OP34, before the text was submitted to the bureau. Those edits regretably altered the overall balance of the text, while questioning agreed language from the Global Digital Compact adopted just two months ago.

We regret that the amendments put forward to correct this imbalance were not adopted by this assembly. As a result, the EU and its Member States are constrained to dissociate from PP22 and OP34. We would like to clarify our understanding of the paragraphs in question.

First, regarding PP22: as expressed consistently across multiple processes and fora, including during the Global Digital Compact negotiations, the EU takes very seriously its commitment to international law and standards. Any reference to the GDC implementation, and to digital governance and digital cooperation in general, shall be understood as being in line with international law, including when harnessing digital technologies to fast-track progress to achieve the SDGs and bridge the digital divides.

Second, on OP34: the EU recalls that the Internet Governance Forum is the primary multi-stakeholder platform for discussion of Internet governance issues at the United Nations.

We welcome that this year’s resolution includes references to the new Global Digital Compact. It is particularly important we stick to the GDC language, agreed less than 2 months ago, as an important guide for the UN efforts on digital cooperation. We therefore cannot consider PP22 and OP34 as agreed language going forward.

Finally, a multi-stakeholder approach is essential to bridge digital divides, harness the benefits of digital transformation, and address the related challenges that arise. It is important to distinguish between the multistakeholder internet governance model – necessary to keep the technical internet global, open and interoperable, thereby ensuring that developing countries remain intergrated into, and benefit from the global digital economy – and broader multistakeholder digital governance, which addresses the wider range of digital transformation issues.

Conducting political discussions on broader digital issues without considering the inputs from the private sector, civil society, international organizations, technical and academic communities, and all other relevant stakeholders, including the end users of these technologies, will remain a sterile endeavour. The EU and its Member States value strong multi-stakeholder participation and believe that our work at the UN on digital issues can only benefit from multi-stakeholder contributions. We are concerned that not all delegations may fully share that view.

The WSIS+20 review offers an excellent opportunity for a timely multi-stakeholder discussion on digital issues. We reiterate the need to account for a pressing timeframe and to have co-facilitators appointed urgently in order to kick-off the consultations on the WSIS+20 high-level meeeting outcome document.

The EU accepted the language put forward in OP62 in the spirit of compromise, but would like to put on the record that by showing flexibility on this matter we expect a deeper modalities resolution than the one that was adopted for the WSIS+10 review, accounting for improved ways of meaningfully engaging stakeholders.

The EU remains committed to continue working closely with partners worldwide to advance an inclusive, open, safe and secure digital space for all.

Thank you.

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