EU Statement – UN General Assembly Consultations on the report by the High-Level-Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism

Thank you, dear co-facilitators, for convening this important consultation, and to you, esteemed co-chairs, for your excellent presentation of the report.

I am delivering this statement on behalf of the EU and its Member States. The Candidate Countries North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, and the potential candidate country Georgia, and Monaco align themselves with this statement.

At the outset, let me commend you, distinguished co-chairs and your team for your strong commitment to an as inclusive as possible consultation and for delivering a very inspirational, bold and thought-provoking, while still very readable report.

More time is needed to carefully analyse each of the proposals, their possible implementation and effects on the ground, but the reasoning pursued in the report has our full support.

We also see the rationale for your focus on the six priority areas, or transformational shifts as you call them. They are certainly not exclusive, but capture well many of the issues at the core of a functioning and more effective multilateral system: the starting point on why such a report is needed at all.

The Secretary-General in his ‘Common Agenda’ report clearly identified the shortcomings and gaps of our global governance system, which hamper the delivery on our agreed priorities, first and foremost, the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs. Many referred to it in Monday’s Open Debate in the Council.

Many of your concrete recommendations can serve as enablers for accelerated implementation of the SDGs. They make up a body of inputs – together with ‘Our Common Agenda’ and the policy briefs – for our consideration – not limited to the Summit of the Future, and - not to forget - the World Social Summit in 2025, but already with a view to the SDG Summit in September.  We appreciate both co-chairs speaking to this fact.

We are keen on seeing an even stronger link between the SDG Summit and the Summit of the Future process in terms of content and sequencing, in particular how the different briefs, papers and reports systematically reference to each other

Allow me to provide the EU’s initial reflections on these shifts and specific recommendations.

First, we can fully subscribe to your definition of the 10 constituent principles of an “effective multilateralism”, and to mainstreaming these principles across the six transformative shifts.

Secondly, we also fully agree with your guiding principle, co-chairs, of rebuilding trust towards our multilateral system and its institutions. Full implementation on our agreed priorities, most notably the 2030 Agenda, is key here. ‘Our Common Agenda’ was set out precisely as a programme of action to improve and accelerate delivery on our priorities. Its second overarching objective was to reinvigorate multilateralism – by making it more effective, inclusive and networked.

We fully agree with your findings that this can only be achieved if we place gender equality at the heart of the multilateral architecture. Women and girls and must be represented equally and meaningfully across all institutions and processes of global governance, including notably in leadership positions. Your proposals towards that objective deserve close and positive consideration.

The EU also fully supports the systematic engagement of youth, civil society, the private sector and other stakeholders. Our decision-making clearly benefits from their inputs!

We also look positively at your recommendations towards designing policies and practices that represent and account for future generations – very much in line with what we are trying to achieve with a ‘Declaration on Future Generations, geared towards making the system “future-fit”.

Lastly, ensuring more effective decision-making is certainly in the interest of all of us here. We will carefully study your proposals made in this regard.

Third, we welcome the strong focus on addressing the triple planetary crisis as captured in your second transformational shift:, and are supportive of proposals to elevate the environment in the multilateral system and improve global water governance – agreed as one of the main conclusions of the recent UN Water Conference. We also largely echo the ambition on climate and energy, and will study further all the proposals with a view to reinforcing existing processes, especially under the UNFCCC.

Fourth, the issue of sustainable finance is – as you rightly state - key to the implementation of the SDGs and to reducing inequalities. We agree to maintain the momentum generated by various initiatives, such as the Bridgetown Agenda or the SDG Stimulus, in this regard. We expect many if not all of the issues you mentioned to feature prominently in the forthcoming policy brief on Global Financial Architecture Reform and look forward to engaging constructively in the consultations.

Fifth, the EU supports the strong emphasis on a Just Digital Transition, on digital governance that is human-centred and fully respectful of human rights, and multilateral and multi-stakeholder approaches. We also see a clear need in establishing principles on global data governance. You also made several proposals that entail new bodies or concepts, which we will study carefully as to avoid overlaps and ensure synergies, especially with a view to ongoing consultations on the Global Digital Compact.

Sixth, the report rightly states that the current international peace and security architecture is not fit-for-purpose to address today’s and future challenges. In this regard, we support the long-overdue reform of the Security Council, and strongly encourage Member States to make specific proposals within the IGN framework. We also support the emphasis on prevention, and will study carefully your proposals as regards the expansion of the mandate of the Peacebuilding Commission, a body that has our strong support. We also support the ambition of strengthening the connection between the UN regional organisations, like the African Union and our own, and look forward to discussing these and other proposals in the context of forthcoming New Agenda for Peace.

Lastly, the EU also supports efforts at strengthening governance for current and emerging transnational threats, allowing the UN system to better anticipate and respond to risks and global shocks before they escalate beyond control. The Secretary-General has already made a concrete and constructive proposal with the Emergency Platform, which received strong initial support.

We will further study the proposals in more detail and look forward to further discussing them in relevant fora leading up the SDG Summit and the Summit of the Future.

I thank you.