EU General Statement – UN General Assembly 2nd Committee: Information and Communications Technologies for Sustainable Development

Madam Chair,

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

The Candidate Countries Türkiye, Serbia, Albania^*, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, the potential candidate country Bosnia and Herzegovina^* and Georgia align themselves with this statement.

At the outset, let me thank the co-facilitators Karina Ratnamurthi from Indonesia and Jorge Rios from Mexico, the Secretariat and other delegations for their truly tireless work on this resolution.

The EU welcomes the adoption of this resolution. We are pleased that we once again confirm the importance of ICTs and digital transformation for sustainable development.

A multi-stakeholder approach is necessary to bridge digital divides, harness the benefits of digital transformation and address the related challenges that arise. 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 the view that all stakeholders must be fully and meaningfully involved in this endeavour.

We particularly regret that the preambular part of this resolution now includes a new and misplaced reference to stakeholders’ “roles and responsibilities”. In our view this reference is, at best, unnecessary, and, at worst, could be used to try to limit stakeholders’ engagement. Such loose use of the reference should be avoided in future negotiations.

Madam Chair,

We welcome that this year’s resolution includes stronger language on gender equality, and a new paragraph on digitalization for education and life-long learning.

Moreover, we are pleased that the resolution recognizes the forthcoming process for the development of a Global Digital Compact. As the resolution states, this should be an open and inclusive process. We would like to further stress the need to ensure meaningful stakeholders’ engagement and participation in the process. The EU and its Member States look forward to engaging constructively and believe that the outcome should strengthen digital cooperation and inclusive, human rights-based and multi-stakeholder digital governance.

Thank you!