Mr. Chair,

I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of the EU and its Member States.

We thank you, Mr. Chair, as well as the Bureau and the UN secretariat for your leadership and guidance and for presenting this 2C Revitilisation decision.

We started the Decade of Action in the midst of a global pandemic. This has solidified our conviction that a revitalized, fit-for-purpose Committee is essential in order to effectively and efficiently address new and emerging challenges.

Mr. Chair, we had hoped to reach an outcome that constituted not a tiny step, but a leap, in the direction of revitalizing the Committee, allowing us to commit our work and resources fully to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. We have seen that progress is slow and the steps are small steps forward. The EU clearly hoped for consensus on a more ambitious draft decision. The most important though, is that we keep 2C revitilisation on the agenda, for the fall, and also for the years to come. While we deeply regret that no concrete steps could be agreed upon this year, we welcome that the decision contains many important proposals that will serve as a good basis to book further progress in the upcoming 2^nd committee season.

For our part, the EU will continue to focus on making the 2030 Agenda the driving force behind the Committee’s agenda. The discussions of the 2C items should contribute directly to the implementation of the Decade of Action. We furthermore remain convinced that improvements can be made by refocusing, merging, discontinuing, or widening the periodicity of some resolutions, which in turn will allow us to focus our attention on those issues that truly make a difference on the ground for the well-being of our citizens and the planet. We believe we can achieve this by looking at the possibilities of co-authorship of zero draft resolutions in combination with co-facilitation of draft resolutions. We will continue to assess carefully the need for a report in every resolution and we will look closely at possibilities of joint reporting on agenda items of a similar nature. Last but not least, improving the working methods further, is also crucial to the EU.

The EU is eager to book tangible progress in the upcoming 2C.  We hope the upcoming session will provide us with an opportunity to negotiate a definition of a technical rollover so we can use technical roll overs for specific resolutions in the future and lower our workload, in order to focus only on the resolutions that are most important in a certain year.

We believe the dedication to efficiency and the level of trust demonstrated by us all last fall, is what we can and should build on together when continuing our discussions on the revitalization of the Second Committee and striving as much as possible to keep the consensual character of the Committee. 2C revitalization discussions have been taking place for years and the European Union and its Member States would like to reaffirm our continued commitment to ambitious, tangible change as a matter of ever-increasing urgency.

I thank you.