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Dear co-facilitators, dear stakeholders and friends, nice to see many of you on screen again after Nairobi!

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

Co-facilitators, we thank you for organizing this important meeting to hear and exchange views with Major Groups and other Stakeholders and Civil Society after the Nairobi conference and during the process of our 3^rd reading of the Pact.

Let me reiterate that we are committed to the full engagement and inclusive participation of all stakeholders, including civil society actors.

Not only was the EU and member states the main sponsors of the Conference, but the EU and many of our member states also actively participated. Making sure that what was discussed in Nairobi, is also brought back to NY for the negotiations on the Pact and its annexes. 

The UN Charter starts with “we the peoples”. The importance of including variety of stakeholders in the Summit of the Future process flows from this.

We agree with the co-chairs of the Nairobi Conference that we need innovative ways of stakeholder engagement, focusing not just on what they expect from us, but also what they can offer to us, championing critical issues of our time. In this regard, we will study with interest the proposed impact coalitions to see how they may serve to advance SoTF action.

Turning now to the revised zero draft. We would like to reiterate our sincere appreciation for the hard work of our co-facilitators and their teams. We all agree that the current text is now much more action-oriented. We dare say that all of us can see ourselves, in some way, in this new text.

Let me underline a few points that we think are indispensable for the Pact. We need to:

• to articulate properly and in a balanced way the interconnection of the three pillars of the UN. We need have the same level of ambition and detail for all chapters of the Pact. The lack of development or cultural diversity can never be an excuse to violate or disregard human rights;
• to have more language on our global commons such as oceans;
• to have references on maritime security, wars of aggression and exercising of the veto in case of mass atrocities. We need also to be more explicit on a new generation of peace enforcement;
• to convey the highest possible level of ambition for financing for development, including for the FFD4 Conference next year, but at the same time not prejudge processes and dictate outcomes.

For more details on the EU priorities, please also see our statement delivered on May 28th at the Ambassadorial meeting on the Rev1 with more details.

We hope that all of us together, honouring our respective roles and responsibilities, will achieve the outcome that we can be proud of. The future of all of us and the United Nations is at stake, we have the opportunity of a lifetime to deliver.

We look forward to the Days of Action ahead of the Summit itself, as an important avenue for inclusion of non-member state stakeholders.

Let me conclude with the offer that the EU and its MS will always have an open ear and door to listen to diverse civil society perspectives to inform our work on the Pact for the Future and other processes.  

I thank you.