EU Statement – UN General Assembly: Briefing by the Secretary-General on the Our Common Agenda policy briefs for the Summit of the Future

EU Statement – UN General Assembly: Briefing by the Secretary-General on the Our

Mr Secretary-General, excellences,

I am delivering this statement on behalf of the EU and its MS.

Mr Secretary-General, at the outset, I’d also like to extend our sincere thanks to your team for preparing those first two detailed policy briefs and for taking time in your busy calendar to present those first 2 important policy briefs in person.

We will have the opportunity to discuss in more detail during the upcoming consultations once we all had time to assess the briefs more thoroughly. So please take my intervention today as our preliminary reflections.

Your vision, Mr Secretary-General, on concrete elements of an ambitious, bold and forward-looking Pact for the Future is essential to guide our deliberations towards next year’s Summit of the Future.

The two proposals for an ‘Emergency Platform’ and a ‘Declaration for Future Generations’ certainly present viable candidates to be included in such a Pact given that they clearly respond to gaps in our governance and decision-making structure and culture.

As for the Emergency Platform, the UN75 Declaration affirmed the need for a UN that is better prepared for complex global crises, such as the pandemic, to which - as your brief rightly cites - the initial response was fractured and uncoordinated, and further humbled by the lack of political will. We share this analysis and the need to do better.

We therefore welcome your proposal with the view to ensuring a better coordinated and more coherent global response – one that prioritizes the needs of the most affected and vulnerable communities.

Let me highlight three essential elements for such an Emergency Platform:

1. We welcome that the policy brief underlines that such a platform would not be a standing body or entity, but rather be made up of a set of protocols, including on decision-making, which we will have to discuss later in more detail. Those protocols shall be activated when needed, building upon and leveraging improved and reinforced existing tools and mechanisms, guided by a transversal vision, thus avoiding possible overlaps and gaps.
2. To respond to the severity and complexity of future global shocks, the Platform must be inclusive – gathering inputs from a variety of stakeholders -, interdisciplinary, multi-sectoral and fit for purpose by mobilizing the right set of actors, technical expertise, and adequate resources. Your convening power, Mr Secretary-General, qua mandate is one of the most important tools you have at your disposal. We encourage you to make best use of it.
3. We must ensure that once the platform is activated, it makes best use of available foresight and early warning data and analysis to provide for evidence-based and informed decisions throughout the response. This, in turn, would also help ensure the necessary level of accountability.

Turning to the “Declaration on Future Generations’. Mr Secretary-General, colleagues, it is our strong belief that the interests of Future Generations should not be seen as an abstract concept we can deal with at a later stage. It should to the contrary be enshrined in our approach to policy- and decision-making. It requires a different mind-set, one that is not only reactive, but more anticipatory.

Without having yet assessed the policy brief in full, we can support its main operational points, notably:

• Sharing of best practices and making better use of foresight, science and data in policymaking, including the intention to issue a global risk report. This is fully in line with your vision for a UN 2.0, which has our support.
• The strong focus on gender equality as an essential human right and one of the decisive factors for unleashing future generations’ full potential. We celebrated International Women’s Day yesterday and throughout this CSW week one could not escape the sense what we are missing in not having women and girls as equals around the table. We strongly commend you for your support in this regard, Mr Secretary-General.

The proposal for a dedicated Special Envoy for Future Generations also deserves close and positive consideration, provided its funding, role and mandate is well articulated with view to other existing or newly-created positions, such as the Youth Envoy’s Office and the new Youth Office.

In terms of timing, we have listened carefully in past months to all those voices stressing the need to put preparations for the SDG Summit square and center during this session.  The EU fully supports this approach. At the same time, ‘Our Common Agenda’ is meant to “turbocharge” SDG implementation, and to ensure that no one is left behind.

We clearly see those two proposals presented today going in this direction and would therefore be open to advancing work on those two proposals and – provided there is sufficient support – to finding agreement in time for the Ministerial meeting in September.

Mr Secretary-General, we stand ready to continue to engage detail constructively with all of you and other stakeholders in the coming weeks and months in an inclusive process,

I thank you.