EU General Statement – UN General Assembly 2nd Committee: Follow-up to the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for Small Island Developing States

Mr Chair, 

I have the honour to deliver this statement on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.

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

I would like to start by thanking Mr Vladimir Budhu of Palau for facilitating the negotiations and the Secretariat for their support.  

The Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for Small Island Developing States sets out an ambitious plan to boost resilience and prosperity for SIDS. The EU is committed to contributing to its full, timely and effective implementation, through strengthened partnership, and we welcome the opportunity to advance that work through this Resolution.

Throughout negotiations, led by Germany, Ireland, Portugal and the EU, on behalf of our group, the EU engaged openly and constructively to this end, for the benefit of all the SIDS. This is illustrative of our shared commitment to seeing the implementation tasks arising from ABAS progressed and we look forward to playing our part, working closely with SIDS and others, in that regard. 

Mr Chair, we regret that a vote has been called on this normally consensual resolution. We believe this undermines our collective effort and the constructive spirit of striving for consensus which has been a tradition in this committee and has also guided the negotiations on this resolution this year. The EU and its Member States fully support this important resolution. 

We welcome the endorsement, through this resolution, of key ABAS deliverables, in particular the ABAS monitoring and evaluation framework and follow-up on the recommendations for strengthening the SIDS Partnership Framework and the SIDS Global Business Network and its Forum.

You can count on our continued support to their implementation, including through the Steering Committee for SIDS Partnerships.

We also welcome updates on operationalisation of the SIDS Centre of Excellence and the coordination mechanism for the AIS region, including through the briefing provided by H.E. the Permanent Representative of Antigua and Barbuda, Ambassador Walton Webson, during the informal consultation process. 

This will help inform our engagement going forward.We are pleased that the resolution welcomes recent developments that provided opportunities to highlight the priorities and specific vulnerabilities of SIDS, and to support the implementation of ABAS, including the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development and the upcoming entry into force of the Agreement on BBNJ, as well as the Third United Nations Ocean Conference. 

The EU wishes to express regret, however, with regard to two areas. 

First, while appreciating the focused approach to this year’s resolution, it is unfortunate that there was no agreement to include language on the 1.5 degrees temperature goal, which is a central feature of ABAS and the SIDS4 Conference. 

We hope that in future delegations will be ready to engage substantively on this and other important cross-cutting thematic matters in the context of driving the implementation of ABAS forward. 

We hope also that in the future we can agree on the reference to the Paris Agreement in the United Nations Treaty Series - if we are to achieve our climate objectives, we must remain united.

In closing, let me stress that we welcome the adoption of this Resolution and its focus on implementing ABAS. SIDS have a friend and a committed partner in the EU and its Member States and we look forward to continuing our partnership in the critical period ahead. 

I thank you.