EU Statement – UN Working Group on GA Revitalization: Role and authority of the General Assembly

Final – Check against Delivery

Chairs, Excellencies, colleagues,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.

This Group has a crucial task: to effectively implement, across its four clusters, the mandate agreed on 5 September in resolution 79/327. This will be essential to ensure that the General Assembly remains an efficient, transparent and credible pillar of multilateralism – and to demonstrate that we can translate our pronouncements on increasing its effectiveness into positive action.

We thank the Co-Chairs for convening us and for guiding the work of the Group and we appreciate the presence of the Chairs of the Main Committees. As the UN80 Initiative is expected to begin to deliver during the current session, the 80th session should be decisive for the implementation of resolution 79/327 as well. The synergies between the two processes are inherent and should be fully leveraged. It is essential, for example, that the work on the resolution on Mandate reform and the work of this Working Group are fully aligned and mutually reinforcing. 

On cluster one, on the role and authority of the General Assembly, we welcome enhanced coordination between the General Assembly, the Security Council, and ECOSOC. Persistent challenges remain, including overlapping mandates, excessive resolutions with limited follow-up, and insufficient alignment between the General Assembly and ECOSOC. 

We welcome the monthly meetings between the Presidents of the General Assembly and ECOSOC and encourage the involvement also of the President of the Security Council. The mandated reviews of ECOSOC and the High-Level Political Forum present an obvious opportunity to strengthen ECOSOC. We would strongly encourage a mapping and analysis addressing duplication and overlap, including through a review of resolutions negotiated in both bodies. 

We stress the importance of continued engagement between the General Assembly and the Peacebuilding Commission. and we support the continued implementation of resolution 377 A (V), Uniting for Peace, as well as resolution 76/262 on the veto initiative. 

We attach particular importance to the first-ever collective appeal by the General Assembly for restraint in the use of the veto in situations involving genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. We expect this call to be pursued accordingly by all Member States, in line with our shared responsibility to prevent and respond to the most serious crimes.

We welcome efforts by the Security Council to improve the quality of its annual report, including enhanced information on the use of the veto. We also welcome the digital handbook on past practices supporting the General Assembly’s functions under Chapter IV of the Charter.

Turning to cluster two, on working methods, we stress again the need to reduce the frequency, length, and overall number of resolutions across all Main Committees to make our work more focused and impactful. For the benefit of all our people, we should start focusing more on supporting the UN and each other in implementing our resolutions and less on endlessly re-negotiating them. We also welcome the enforcement of time limits for explanations of vote and for meetings chaired by the President of the General Assembly.

We welcome ongoing reviews of working methods by the Main Committees, while noting that these efforts remain uneven across Committees. In this regard, we look forward to proposals from the General Committee to promote greater coherence and synergies. We also welcome the one-gavel approach, successfully implemented last year at adoption by the General Assembly.

We regret that, despite agreed language on our shared concern regarding the proliferation of international commemorations, negotiations on new observances continue. With around 250 UN observances already in place, their growing number risks diluting their impact and further burdening our stretched fiscal and human resources. We therefore look forward to the moratorium foreseen for the 81st and 82nd sessions. Similar considerations should apply to resolutions of a regional scope.

We also regret that the number of high-level meetings scheduled during high-level week exceeds the agreed limit of three and stand ready to engage on this.

Finally, we strongly support the amendment of the Rules of Procedure, to reflect feminine pronouns and gender-specific nouns for women, in the six official languages. 

Colleagues, the European Union and its Member States remain fully committed to the revitalization of the work of the General Assembly. We do not see this as a one-off exercise, but as a continuous effort to ensure that the General Assembly can fulfil its role with credibility, efficiency and relevance.

Thank you.