EU Statement – UN General Assembly: High-Level Meeting on Financing for Peacebuilding
Your Excellencies, President of the General Assembly,
The Candidate Countries Turkey, North Macedonia*, Montenegro*, Serbia* and Albania*, the country of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidate Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the EFTA country Norway, member of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia, align themselves with this statement.
Ensuring peace and security is the very core of the mandate of the UN, yet, we have for years discussed how to fund the UN work to do exactly that: build peace and prevent that conflicts turn violent. I am honoured to take the floor today at this High-Level Meeting which thanks to the report from the Secretary-General is taking an important step toward new solutions. And it is high time.
Confronted with the highest number of violent conflicts since 1945, repeated violations of the UN Charter and International Law, the return of military coups, rising impunity, and assaults on human rights and the rule of law, the need to consolidate and strengthen our collective efforts to build effective security and promote preventive diplomacy is urgent.
Just as the world was beginning to heal from the extraordinary challenges posed by the pandemic, Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified military aggression against Ukraine has compounded these negative developments. As a result, we are thrown into even more uncertain times and with rapidly rising food and energy prices, increased fragility, and, as a possible consequence, amplified tensions within and between countries. The effects of this war touch on nearly every aspect of sustainable development, and we must redouble our efforts to ensure that this does not lead to increased instability and violent conflict.
The EU and its member states are steadfast supporters of global peacebuilding and conflict prevention. We share the same fundamental values and strive towards the same goals as the UN: maintenance of international peace and security and the promotion of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms on the basis of the principles of self-determination of peoples. The EU is firm in its belief that the rules-based multilateral order – with the UN at its core – is key to meeting today’s challenges and building and sustaining peace.
The EU's global engagement in peacebuilding and stabilisation has been strengthened with the adoption of our Thematic programme on Peace, Stability and Conflict Prevention. Between 2021 and 2027, with a budget of Euro 900 million (approx. USD 1 billion), this programme will build capacities for conflict prevention, peacebuilding and crisis preparedness, addressing global, trans-regional and emerging threats. This comes as part of our development assistance to fragile countries and marginalised communities and it is in addition to our strengthened effort to mediate and solve conflicts peacefully.
Through bilateral programmes, EU member states will continue to be important and reliable partners of countries affected by conflict, providing essential assistance in all phases of stabilisation and peace processes.
Mr President,
“Our Common Agenda” established that peacebuilding –also through the political convening power of the Peacebuilding Commission and the actions and projects of the Peacebuilding Fund – is at the centre of UN’s future role in ensuring peace and stability. Just as importantly, the Secretary-General called for a revitalized prevention agenda and for every UN presence to be made a centre of prevention expertise.
One of the key opportunities identified in the Secretary-General’s report is to further strengthen the integration of peacebuilding efforts into the UN system with the Humanitarian-Development-Peace nexus approach through more extensive use of the UN Sustainable Development Country Cooperation Frameworks. Aligning peacebuilding efforts with the development work could be the basis for a coherent focus of the whole UN System and host countries, opening much larger financing streams to this. This is particularly important in UN Transitions when the risk of a financial cliff is mitigated through early planning and coordination.
Options for increasing investments in conflict prevention and peacebuilding, through the International Financial Institutions’ engagement in situations of Fragility, Conflict and Violence will also have to be explored and the EU and its member states will work to make this happen. Furthermore, we will promote coherence in our own internal systems in support of conflict prevention and peacebuilding, strengthening financing modalities for improved support for women’s full, equal and meaningful participation, the effective inclusion of youth, increasing efforts for local peacebuilding work, making sure that financing is flexible and long term. We will strive to work towards delivering more of our ODA to peacebuilding priorities in conflict-affected settings, as well as improving inclusive measurement and monitoring of peace impact and providing evidence for peacebuilding results.
But even with more efficiency, better integration of the prevention agenda and more donors, there is no doubt that new ways of funding UN peacebuilding have to be explored to ensure adequate, stable and predictable funding for UN peacebuilding. Voluntary contributions have shown to be insufficient against the growing peacebuilding needs, and we recognize that assessed contributions would offer a crucial addition to adequate and predictable financing for peacebuilding. We encourage the fifth committee to consider the modalities for assessed contributions.
Mr President, this High-Level Meeting offers an opportunity for concrete commitments that must not be missed. To cement our intentions, we support a strong, actionable, and negotiated outcome, and the start of negotiation of a resolution on the matter.
* North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Albania continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.