EU Statement: General Assembly Revitalisation -- Ad Hoc Working Group General Debate

Dear Ambassadors, dear Co-Chairs,

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

The Candidate Countries North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Georgia, as well as Andorra and San Marino align themselves with this statement.

I would like to start with thanking you for convening this debate and sharing a letter beforehand to guide the debate today. Allow us to congratulate you again, Ambassador Menissa Rambally and Ambassador Cornel Feruță, on your appointments as co-chairs of the Ad-Hoc Working Group. We feel very confident that this important file – an essential component in our overall reform efforts – is in safe hands under your capable leadership.

Thank you for providing us with an update on the status of implementation of the mandates contained in resolution 77/335 adopted on 1st September 2023. The EU fully supports your approach to see how we can all best work together to implement agreed revitalization mandates and shape this session of the AHWG in order to meaningfully advance towards our common goal of enhancing the role, authority, effectiveness, and efficiency of the General Assembly.

With a special focus to this year’s two priority areas, the role and authority of the GA and its working methods, and with regard to the guiding questions you have provided, I would like to make five key points:

 [1. Role and authority of GA can be more efficiently focused on preserving the principles of the Charter and boosting global public confidence in this Organization]

We want to underline that there is a need for better and more efficient relations between the GA and the Security Council, as well as better coordination of the GA with ECOSOC. In accordance with the UN Charter, the GA is to assist in the realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms. We must ensure that mainstreaming human rights is carried out throughout our work, across all Committees. We

further encourage closer deliberations with the Human Rights Council. In order to more efficiently prioritise the GA’s work around the principles of the Charter, we should continue considering the

clustering, elimination, bi- and triennialisation of items on the agendas of the GA and its six committees, notably in cases where items overlap or where the issues they entail are outdated. Such rationalization by no way seeks to weaken the General Assembly. To the contrary, it aims to focus its action, produce more tangible outcomes, and keep it relevant as a body that deliberates current challenges. In this regard, the Summit of the Future is a major opportunity to strengthen multilateralism and renew trust in the work of this Organisation and in the principles of the UN Charter, including through revitalising the General Assembly.

[2. Enhancing relationship and coordination between the GA and SC on matters related to the maintenance of international peace and security.]

One key success of the Resolution 77/335 is that we have recognized the GA’s role in peace and security, including through the adoption of a resolution giving the GA a standing mandate to convene a debate

when a veto is cast, and the need for close interaction with the Security Council in this area. In this regard, we continue to encourage the Security Council to provide complete, substantive and analytical account of its work to the General Assembly, including through further details on draft resolutions that failed to be adopted by the Council, or through timely submissions and use of the monthly Assessments by Council presidencies.

[3. How the General Committee can contribute more effectively to streamlining the agenda of the GA]

The General Committee is a cross-cutting Committee, that can orient us and prevent us from working in silos. We should continue making a better use of the General Committee, trying to ensure due coordination between negotiating processes. The possibility to have live calendars of scheduled meetings and negotiations is useful in helping us to avoid overlaps between different processes. We are encouraged by the launching of “iGov”, the new portal to the work of intergovernmental bodies, which will allow more quality and availability of information on these bodies for MS and all stakeholders. On the other hand, we support hand-over meetings between outgoing and incoming Committee Chairs and encourage more Member States to join the voluntary pledge to limit the number of side events during the General Debate (which has currently 26 signatories).

[4. Creative innovate and concrete ways to ensure the implementation of existing revitalization measures]

We support an inventory on the provisions of past GA Revitalisation resolutions that have not yet been implemented and would welcome the opportunity to receiving an update by the Secretariat during this

session, possibly during the informal dialogue with the Secretariat. We particularly look forward to the implementation of OP30 of the last revitalization resolution on a digital handbook on the practices and situations in which the General Assembly has had a relevant role in peace and security. We further strongly welcome efforts to mainstream gender equality in GA meetings, resolutions, and outcomes. It will be important to achieve consistent gender parity among invited speakers and panellists for high-level and other relevant GA meetings and briefings. Building on the progress made during the most recent negotiations, we will continue working to bridge positions and bring the GA rules of procedure in line with today’s reality, including by calling for the removal of “gendered language”.

[5. Further questions and requests]

Furthermore, increasing the visibility of the GA’s work is essential to enhancing public awareness of our agreed actions. In this regard, we look forward to the briefing by the Department of Global Communication. Increased visibility also requires full respect to multilingualism. Finally, we would welcome increased engagement with all stakeholders. We would encourage the Co-Chairs to organize

impactful consultations of the AHWG with civil society organizations, youth representatives, science-based knowledge centres and other relevant stakeholders.

The EU looks forward to engaging constructively throughout this

process.

I thank you.