Chair,

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

The Candidate Countries Montenegro*, Albania*, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, the potential candidate country Georgia, and the EFTA country Iceland, member of the European Economic Area, as well as Andorra and Monaco align themselves with this statement.

First, let me thank the Group of G77+China for presenting the draft resolution “Implementation of the Third United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (2018–2027)”, adopted today, all Delegations for their constructive approach and valuable contributions to the negotiations, the Co-facilitators Leila Lora-Santos from the Philippines and Montserrat Gonzalez from Chile, for their help in guiding our discussions to a successful conclusion, as well as the Secretariat for its support throughout.

We are pleased to join consensus today.  

The European Union and its Member States stand firmly behind the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which guide our actions both internally and externally.

Fostering the sustainable economic, social and environmental development of developing countries, with the primary aim of eradicating poverty is a founding principle of our international cooperation enshrined in the Treaty on European Union.

We are particularly pleased to be welcoming the political declaration adopted by the high-level political forum on sustainable development convened under the auspices of the General Assembly (Sustainable Development Goals Summit), held in New York on 18 and 19 September 2023. The EU and its Member States are committed to timely action to ensure its full implementation.

The resolution clearly stresses the need to increase the investment in human capital by investing in affordable, universal health coverage; universal social protection; food and nutrition security, universally accessible quality education and training, including digital skills training; decent job creation, especially for young people, women and persons with disabilities.

Despite the unprecedented worldwide expansion of mainly short-term social protection interventions during the pandemic, still more than 4 billion people around the world remain entirely unprotected.  The EU continues supporting partner countries in comprehensive, sustainable and shock responsive social protection systems.

We are determined to promote ambitious international partnerships and are committed to jointly finding multilateral solutions to global challenges with Least Developed Countries and other partners.

The EU and its Member States, as the biggest global ODA provider are committed to collectively meeting the target of 0.20% of gross national income to LDCs by 2030.

The world nowadays requires more solidarity and cooperation to meet the commitments of the Sustainable Development Goals including the eradication of poverty. The EU and its Member States are committed to do their share.

Thank you.