EU Statement – UN Security Council Open Debate on Maintenance of International Peace and Security: Promote Sustaining Peace through Common Development

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Let me first thank you Mr Chair, for convening this important meeting and for providing us with the opportunity to speak.

The Candidate Countries North Macedonia^*, Montenegro^*, Albania, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina^*, and the potential candidate country Georgia, align themselves with this statement.

It is widely acknowledged today that development and peace are intrinsically linked. While development is not possible without peace and security, conversely, development largely contributes to stability, security and peace.

Development is key not only for the stability of a country, but also for peace and stability among countries.  It is not just a national issue, it is a global imperative.

But in this equation we shouldn’t forget human rights, as economic development alone will not be sufficient to ensure stability if human rights are not respected, and if people suffer discriminations. Moreover, individuals and in particular women and young people,  must also be at the heart of our response, as agents of change in resolving conflict, longer-term development impacts and building sustainable and lasting peace.

The GA and UNSC resolutions on sustaining peace underline that development, peace and security and human rights are interlinked and mutually reinforcing and emphasize the importance of such a comprehensive approach to sustaining peace. The EU has just signed a new Partnership Agreement with the Organisation of the African, Caribbean and Pacific States: the Samoa agreement.  This new framework is based on a comprehensive approach which includes sustainable development and growth, human rights and peace and security. 

We believe that achieving the SDGs is key and we are committed to contributing substantially to their achievement. As the leading global partner for the SDGs, the EU and its MS collectively provided 92.8 USD billion, in 2022 alone, which amounts to 43% of global assistance.

Since December 2022, we are rolling out the Global Gateway, which is our strategy for sustainable investments in infrastructure globally. Global gateway will contribute directly to progress on a range of interlinked SDGs, notably through investment in transport, energy and digitalisation infrastructure, as well as health and education. Part of the Global Gateway is dedicated to supporting Africa’s regional integration processes, for example through the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area. These investments will bring people closer together through eleven strategic transport corridors that will facilitate trade but will also bring them closer to services, education, healthcare and economic opportunities. These investments are fully in line with the SDGs and by creating more resilient societies they ultimately also contribute to peace.

Throughout our Global Gateway initiatives whether in the food, health, water, transport or communication sectors we pay particular attention to the necessary resilience and protection of critical infrastructure, which is always conflict-sensitive.

The Global gateway projects are initiated in full partnership with the countries concerned and their macrofinancial impact is minimized through grants, blending public and private funds and innovative financial instruments such as guarantees.

Such development projects will not be a game changer if we do not address development finance and debt alleviation. We need a fairer financial architecture to enable developing countries to put their economies back on a growth trajectory. It costs eight times more for African economies to borrow than it does for the rest of the world, which is simply unfair. We need to make sure everyone has a fair access to finance. To make this happen, multilateral development banks must help ensure faster and better access to finance, and assist countries in need by providing more concessional lending. Tackling the problem of debt is another key issue. An important number of developing countries are currently drowning under their debt load and paying back this debt is consuming an unsustainable amount of tax revenues needed to keep basic services working, which is in turn jeopardizing social cohesion and stability.

At the UN level, there are a number of tools that enable us to link the development agenda with peace and security. The UN Peacebuilding Commission is one of them. Its ability to convene UN bodies, donors and development banks makes it a suitable forum to discuss how development can promote peacebuilding. This is why it is important that the PBC is not limited in its mandate to meet with any UN body that has relevance for its work, including on human rights.

At the operational level, the Peacebuilding fund has proven to be a useful instrument in supporting coordinated efforts across the humanitarian development-peace nexus. The Peace and Development advisors and the Human rights advisors can also help bring peacebuilding, development and human rights together in the field.

These key parts of the UN must be adequately resourced. We are alarmed at the huge funding gap that peacebuilding and conflict prevention suffer from. Conflicts are on the rise but development assistance for peace is at a fifteen-year record low. This assistance also relies on a small number of donors. For example, the EU and its MS provide more than 60% of the PBF’s financing. There is a need to broaden the donors’ base, formalize the relationship with the IFIs and regional banks with the PBF and urgently find a way to ensure more predictable and sustainable financing for peacebuilding.

The New Agenda for Peace provides a unique opportunity for a reflection on how to make these tools more efficient and how to ensure closer collaboration between peacebuilding entities and the Security Council. The EU is committed to actively contribute to this reflection.

I thank you.

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