EU Statement – United Nations Security Council: Cooperation between the UN and AU

Mr President,

One of the core priorities of the UN Secretary-General’s Action for Peacekeeping initiative – for which both the African Union and the European Union have expressed support – is partnerships.

Indeed, partnerships with regional and sub-regional organisations are an important pillar of a stronger and more effective multilateral system, and key to the United Nations' work, in particular when it comes to peace and security.

Equally important is cross-regional cooperation, allowing us to build wider shared understandings of the main challenges that we are facing, and agree on joint responses to some of those global challenges.

With the large majority of ongoing conflicts addressed by the UN Security Council being on the African continent, the African Union is an indispensable partner of the United Nations (and the European Union) across the peace continuum, from conflict prevention to peace operations and peacebuilding. The EU recognises the continued importance of the 2017 Joint UN-AU Framework for an Enhanced Partnership in Peace and Security, for creating a stable framework for dialogue and cooperation.

Regional and sub-regional organisations play a vital role in bringing the work closer to the ground – to ensure inclusivity, legitimacy and participation. This is particularly important for transitions and to ensure local ownership. Regional and sub-regional organisations in Africa have clearly added value in making and sustaining peace, in particular when it comes to good governance and good offices expertise. There are some important lessons to learn from the UN peacebuilding architecture in this regard.

The EU commends the way in which, the African Union is championing the Youth, Peace and Security agenda, and encourage our African partners to continue to systematically bring this topic into the work of the UN Security Council. The AU is at the forefront of efforts to empower youth as positive agents for change and the EU is very happy to be supporting these efforts. We all need to learn from you in order to deliver on our commitments to implement the Youth, Peace and Security agenda and resolutions.

The European Union welcomes the regular interaction between the African Union Peace and Security Council and the UN Security Council, as well as between the AU PSC and the UN Peacebuilding Commission. We encourage reinforcing this cooperation with joint field visits and more frequent interaction at all levels on topical issues such as in preparation for African mandate renewals or key commitments such as the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda. We also suggest extending cooperation to other regional organisations, such as the EU Political and Security Committee, in a trilateral format for discussions on issues or areas where all three organisations play central roles.

The EU recognises the significant contribution of African capabilities to help relieve pressure of United Nations peacekeeping on the continent. Over the last decade, the capacity of Africa’s peace operation capacity has significantly increased. African states account for half of all UN peacekeepers and deploy important operations on the continent, addressing challenges that UN peacekeeping may not be able to address as effectively or even at all such as enforcement, counter-terrorism or trans-national operations. The EU is one of the main supporters of some of those operations. The EU has also supported AU and ECOWAS troops in Somalia and the Gambia respectively, as well as the Multinational Joint Task Force.

The European Union supports the AU’s efforts to secure predictable resources to support African-led peace and security initiatives, including through UN assessed contributions. In line with the 2018 AU-EU Memorandum of Understanding on peace, Security and Governance, we continue to support the full operationalisation of the African Peace and Security Architecture with EUR 40 million from now (2020) until the end of 2023. The focus of the EU support is on early warning, operationalisation of the African standby force, reinforcement of structural and operational links between the AU and the Regional Economic Communities (including capacity building in 8 RECs and 2 ASF mechanisms) and Youth and Childhood in conflicts.

The EU has noted with appreciation the declaration of 2020 as the year of Silencing the Guns. We have agreed with the African Union on the urgent need to adapt and upscale cooperation to better respond to the changing nature of common threats. Over the last decade, the EU has committed EUR 3.5 billion in support of African-led initiatives within the context of the Silencing the Guns 2020 roadmap, contributing to early responses to crisis, capacity-building in the field of peace and security and the financing of AU mandated or authorised peace support operations.

The European Union works alongside the African Union in key locations such as the Sahel, Somalia and Libya, supporting efforts to ensure effective delivery on UN Security Council mandates. The three organisations, the AU, the EU and the UN can play important complementary roles, where we capitalise on our respective added value working towards the common goal of achieving sustainable peace. The Central African Republic is a particularly good case in point.

Thank you.