EU Statement – UN General Assembly: Consultations on the scope of the Summit of the Future
I will offer some preliminary ideas on behalf of the EU and its Member States.
First, let me say that everyone in this room would probably agree that we are falling behind on many fronts on the expectations of the people of the world; that we need to step up implementation on agreed priorities, such as the SDGs, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, the Paris Climate Agreement, and many other fronts to deliver better; but also that we need to find ways to strengthen governance on many issues.
Dear co-facilitators, thank you for convening us this morning. This consultation is very much part of stepping up our commitments. You have rightly identified that the scope of the Summit of the Future is a framework that should very much be based on the UN75 Declaration, which our leaders agreed consensually 2.5 years ago. We see ‘Our Common Agenda’ as the Secretary-General’s response to our leaders’ request for concrete proposals to fill the Declaration’s 12 commitments with life and to move forward on their implementation. The Summit of the Future is an important milestone in these efforts.
Let us recall at the outset the political vision and guiding principles behind both the Declaration and ‘Our Common Agenda’:
- The 2030 Agenda is our roadmap and its implementation a necessity for our survival.
- Our challenges are interconnected and can only be addressed through reinvigorated multilateralism”, which “is not an option, but a necessity. […]
- We need to upgrade the UN, reinvigorate the multilateral system and “forge a new global consensus on what our future should look like” and how to secure it.
We should be guided by this vision in preparing for the Summit of the Future and for achieving an ambitious and bold ‘Pact for the Future’. The first major step is to ensure a successful SDG Summit. We share the Secretary-General’s notion of the SDG Summit and the Summit of the Future being twin Summits as intrinsically linked and mutually reinforcing. Let me quote from the SG’s report: “Our Common Agenda’ is, above all, an agenda of action designed to accelerate the implementation of existing agreements, including the SDGs.”
Implementation is clearly hampered by gaps in our governance system. The High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism was set up with precisely the objective to look at gaps and provide ways to bridge those gaps. The HLAB report delivered on Tuesday has shed fresh light and offered new ideas for action related to some key areas where gaps exist, such as the digital space and data governance, peace and security, climate and the environment, global finance and transnational threats. We look forward to discussing those findings in our consultations next week as part of our preparation for the Summit.
We welcome your efforts, co-facilitators, to set out criteria for possible elements for an ambitious and bold ‘Pact for the Future’. We can subscribe to all of them and agree they are a good basis for defining the scope of the Summit. In addition, we could suggest as an additional criteria encapsulating the interests of youth and future generations in our way of working, which should guide all other strands of work. In this context, we welcome the establishment of a dedicated UN Youth Office as an important step forward in integrating the views of our youth into our decision-making. We also welcome the policy brief on ‘Meaningful Youth Engagement’ shared yesterday, which we will study with great interest.
Incorporating the views of our young generations more systematically is essential, in particular – but not limited – towards the ‘Summit of the Future’. The ‘Declaration for Future Generations’ follows the same vein, seeking to commit us to thinking and acting on behalf of future generations. A lot of work has been done already on this track under the capable leadership of the co-facilitators. The excellent policy brief has further contributed by providing a clear rationale, which we hope will allow for an agreement on this file the coming months. We should try to encapsulate this fresh approach into our work as soon as possible. We must not wait for the Summit of the Future to agree those concepts, but make sure they are included in our work as we prepare for the Summit of the Future.
The same is partially true for the Emergency Platform, which is another important proposal. It responds to a clear gap in our system, aiming at substantially improving the way we respond to very diverse emergencies – or global shocks as the policy brief called it – be it pandemics, environmental emergencies or black swan events. If there is agreement, we should not delay moving forward on that platform as it deals with emergencies that can basically erupt anytime.
We are looking forward to receiving and discussing the outstanding policy briefs, which all clearly respond to gaps in the governance system. Be it the Global Digital Compact, the New Agenda for Peace, the reform of global financial architecture, ‘Beyond GDP’, a ‘Code of conduct for information integrity’ or a UN 2.0 based on strategic foresight, data and science. All those proposals have our strong support. We very much hope that the process leading up to the Summit also generates momentum for other agreed priorities and processes, first and foremost, for the accelerated implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
I am now turning to the Ministerial meeting in September. We believe this preparatory meeting should serve a triple purpose: 1) providing a link between the SDG Summit and the Summit of the Future, and 2) defining the scope of the Summit of the Future, but without closing the door on any work-streams going forward; 3) taking stock of the work already done on specific ‘Common Agenda’ tracks.
The first point could be achieved by having a report back from the SDG Summit at the start of the meeting, like a “SDG Moment”, feeding into the Ministerial meeting.
Reaching an agreement on the scope would in our view be essential for two reasons: First, for generating the necessary political momentum and buy-in back home, in view of preparing our leaders for next year’s Summit. Secondly, for having a clear roadmap that would give us sufficient time to prepare a substantial outcome for the very important Summit. We are very flexible as to the format of any potential outcome document at the Ministerial meeting, possibly something in the form of a Communiqué or Declaration. Such agreement would also allow us to determine the themes for the interactive dialogues we agreed in the modalities resolution. For this, we should agree at the least specific clusters under which specific policy proposals could be grouped. Again, we are flexible, and keen to hear others’ views.
Lastly, let me reiterate the importance of preserving a role for a wide range of stakeholders in the Summit of the Future preparatory process, including for the Ministerial meeting.
I thank for your attention. We are here to listen and engage.