EU Statement -- UN General Assembly 6th Committee: Report of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law on the work of its fifty-seventh session
Mr. Chair,
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.
The Candidate Countries Montenegro*, Serbia*, Albania*, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina* align themselves with this statement.
We would like to thank UNCITRAL for the report covering the fifty-seventh session of the Commission. This was another productive session of the Commission showcasing its important function in the progressive harmonisation and modernisation of international trade law.
The European Union and its Member States have a strong history of cooperation with UNCITRAL. We support consistently multilateral instruments which promote trade by providing a stable legal framework. With that in mind, this past year the European Union signed the Beijing Convention on the Judicial Sale of Ships and the Mauritius Convention on Transparency. This represents a significant step forward, demonstrating a firm political commitment to move, in due time, towards accession to these Conventions by the European Union. We strongly encourage States that have not done so yet, to also sign and ratify these Conventions to increase their reach and efficiency.
The Bejing Convention on the Judicial Sale of Ships provides legal protection for purchasers of ships sold by judicial sale, while safeguarding the interests of ship-owners and creditors. This in turn strengthens international maritime trade and commerce. Moreover, it allows investors to provide ship finance with greater confidence.
The Mauritius Convention on Transparency provides a framework for greater public access to documents and hearings as well as the inclusion of civil society in disputes brought by investors against States under investment treaties.
Mr./Madam Chair,
The European Union and its Member States welcome the elaboration in Working Group IV and the adoption of the Model Law on Automated Contracting, to which we actively contributed. The Model Law aims to offer legal certainty to users of automated systems by providing a legal framework to enable and facilitate contract conclusion and performance by automated systems, notably based on AI and smart contracts. It therefore has an enabling effect supporting the roll-out of innovative digital business models. We support this initiative as a means to boost growth and innovation in the digital economy. We will continue to contribute to Working Group IV.
The EU and its Member States welcome the progress made in Working Group V. We support the work on civil asset tracing and recovery in cross-border insolvency proceedings and look forward to receiving in 2025 the texts on civil asset tracing and recovery in insolvency proceedings as well as the draft toolkit for expedited civil asset tracing and recovery in insolvency proceedings. We would further like to reiterate our support and full intention to continue engaging constructively in efforts to find global solutions for rules on applicable law in cross-border insolvency proceedings.
Turning to the work of Working Group III, the European Union and its Member States would like to underline the importance of continuing to make progress in the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) reform in accordance with the revised workplan agreed in 2021. We welcome in this regard the adoption in principle of the Statute of the Advisory Centre on International Investment Dispute Resolution. The Centre will be open to membership by States and regional economic integration organisations. It will provide much needed capacity building, technical assistance and legal representation services in international investment dispute resolution to least developed and developing countries in priority, thereby contributing to the rule of law. We also welcome the approval by the Commission of the draft toolkit on prevention and mitigation of international investment disputes. We already shared comments on the toolkit and stand ready to contribute again, as appropriate, to assist in its further development.
We now need to focus on the significant work that lies ahead of us. The EU and its Member States look forward to the first meeting dedicated to the preparatory work for the operationalisation of the Centre that will take place in Thailand on 2-4 December. Progress is also required with regard to further pressing structural reforms such as the establishment of a standing mechanism including first instance and appellate tribunals as well as the multilateral instrument to implement the reforms. The EU and its Member States will also continue to engage in intersessional meetings of Working Group III. In that regard, we would like to express our satisfaction with the organisation of inter-sessional meetings, also available for online participation, giving delegates a unique occasion to engage and exchange ideas on the reforms and work programme of Working Group III and provide “food for thought” for future sessions. The 7th intersessional meeting of Working Group III took place in Brussels, Belgium in March 2024 and allowed for fruitful discussions on how a standing mechanism and the Advisory Centre could contribute to better access to justice.
The above significant progress shows that the additional one-week session and supporting resources, allocated to Working Group III as of 2022, have been used effectively. This is corroborated by the observation in the Report of UNCITRAL (para 245) that that additional time ‘allowed the Working Group to complete its consideration of the draft statute of’ the Centre. We are convinced that that will be the case in 2025 allowing to make progress on the remaining areas of the reform.
We would like to reiterate our call to all countries, international organisations and observers to take active part in the work of UNCITRAL, which provides significant advantages in terms of transparency, openness and accessibility. With the aim to maintain the inclusive nature of the work of Working Group III, the European Union, France and Germany continued in 2024 to contribute to the UNCITRAL Travel Fund. We strongly encourage other actors to do the same. The broadest possible participation and engagement of all delegations and interested organisations enriches discussions on the reform brining us closer to a satisfactory outcome as soon as possible.
In the same vein, the European Union and Germany continued to make voluntary contributions in 2024 funding entirely the operation of the Transparency Registry and the promotion of the UNCITRAL transparency standards. The European Union expressed interest to continue providing funding that will allow the continuation of the operation of the Transparency Registry until the end of 2027. We are currently discussing with UNCITRAL the modalities to do so. We encourage other actors to also support this common project of ours with their voluntary contributions.
Lastly, the EU and its Member States take note of the flexible and tentative guiding principles recommended by the Commission with the aim to streamline the text of future UNCITRAL omnibus resolutions. We will continue engaging in the intersessional consultative process thereon.
Mr./Madam Chair,
To conclude, the EU and its Member States would like to stress yet again our appreciation for the productive work of UNCITRAL. It is an example of how multilateral cooperation can be effective delivering tangible results.
Thank you.
* Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.