I am delivering this statement on behalf of the EU and its MS. The Candidate Countries North Macedonia*, Montenegro^*, Serbia^*, Albania^*, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Bosnia and Herzegovina^*, the potential candidate country Georgia,, as well as Andorra, Monaco and San Marino align themselves with this statement.

Dear co-facilitators, let me first of all thank you for your excellent work in this process, all the way from the start aiming to be inclusive and open in this complex exercise, including multiple stakeholders.

We believe the Declaration on Future Generations is an important follow up to our commitment made in the UN75 Declaration, “to work together to strengthen coordination and global governance for the common future of present and coming generations”. We have welcomed Our Common Agenda and the SG Policy Brief: To Think and Act for Future Generations as important sources of inspiration to develop more sustainable policies by taking into account the interests of future generations. From the rich elements paper, the three dialogues and regional group consultations, a lot has been done and we would be foolish if we were not to reap its benefits.

We commend the responsiveness of the facilitators towards the concerns of UNMS and how they adjusted timelines and organised work, to prioritize the SDG Summit this year. We agree with the assessment in the Issues Paper, that the Declaration on Future Generations can be a good way to follow up on the outcome of the SDG Summit and therefore having the negotiations after the SDG Summit will provide an opportunity for full alignment with the outcome of the SDG Summit.

The document we are reflecting upon today is very well structured and concise, offering guiding principles and key stepping stones to be taken on board and to be further refined in the negotiations on the Declaration for Future Generations next year. It thus reflects the message of the Declaration that is to come: short and concise, not getting lost in a long list of priority areas and actionable, because it will only be effective if we all invest in our capacity to better prepare and adapt to future opportunities and challenges.

Besides upholding the three founding pillars of the UN system: peace and security and the international rule of law, human rights, and development; strengthening multilateralism, ensuring clean, healthy and productive environment - countering environmental threats and bridging the digital divides; we very much support the emphasis on foresight and the use of science and data in policymaking; as well as the strong focus on gender equality as one of the decisive factors for unleashing future generations’ full potential.

We also welcome the need to ensure intergenerational equity and solidarity, which will be important for the work of the Special Envoy for Future Generations and the strengthened UN mechanisms, so that we can ensure concrete follow-up and operationalization of our commitment to future generations.

For the process next year, we look forward to see continued engagement with voices from outside the UN, as they have proven insightful and enriched our thinking and discussions on the topic in your process so far.

We thank the co-facilitators for providing this issues paper and organizing the series of engagements on this topic in the past year. We believe this has made the membership ready to engage in negotiations on the Declaration next year within a clearly defined timeline. Finally, we would like to suggest that this Declaration be renamed to a Declaration for Future Generations instead of a Declaration on Future Generations. This adjustment may seem small, but it emphasises for whom we are taking this commitment: the future generations.

We believe that it is instrumental that the interests of Future Generations are taken into consideration as we design our response to the global challenges we face today, as this enriches our solutions and helps us design better and more effective policies, also for present generations.

* North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.