Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-01-29-Speech-4-006"
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"en.20040129.1.4-006"2
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".
Mr President, I very much welcome this opportunity to discuss relations between the European Union and the United Nations, and I want to start by congratulating the rapporteur on the quality of his report. Nobody who knows the honourable Member will be surprised that it is really an outstanding and sensible piece of work.
I would also like to stress at the outset that the Commission is obviously ready to enter into a more regular dialogue with the Parliament on relations between us and the United Nations. It is important for both the Commission and the Parliament to have such an exchange of views on such an important subject. It is only when Parliament, Council and Commission – and indeed the Member States – work well together that the European Union collectively can deliver the support that is needed for the UN system.
As the honourable Member said, the timing of the report is extremely appropriate. The Iraq crisis has, in many ways, served as a wake-up call for us all on the essential role of the UN in questions of peace and security. The Union is an important partner of the UN and we should stand by our commitment to effective multilateralism. The full support of the House for this endeavour is important and I welcome it, especially on the day that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan will address the Parliament. The full Commission had the great privilege and pleasure of spending two-and-a-half hours talking to him yesterday.
The Commission set out its views on the subject in a communication of 10 September 2003, entitled 'The Choice of Multilateralism'. The purpose of the communication was threefold. First and foremost, it was to reaffirm our commitment to multilateralism and the UN. Second, it was to demonstrate the manner in which we implement this commitment in our daily work. The paper provides an impressive inventory of the extensive cooperation between the EU and the UN that is already taking place, and of our support for UN activities on a wide number of issues, ranging from conflict prevention to development aid and from crisis management to poverty reduction. Whilst the issues of peace and security that are dealt with by the Security Council attract most of the media attention, it would be a mistake to focus our attention and support only on those questions. Third, we identify a large number of practical actions to improve our internal coordination on UN questions in the UN bodies themselves, in Brussels and also in the Member States, with the overall aim of enhancing our influence in the UN, and in an attempt to assist it more effectively. In response to this communication, the Council recently agreed on a set of comprehensive conclusions on EU-UN relations that provides a good platform for our future work.
This debate takes place at a time when the Union is looking for an enhanced role on the international stage. Witness to this are not only the proposals of the Convention to streamline the CFSP and the EU’s external action more generally – and here I note in particular the proposal to let the proposed foreign minister speak on behalf of the Union in the Security Council whenever there is a common EU position – but also the European security strategy with its leading theme of effective multilateralism. The European Union should be ready to stand up for its belief in the importance of the United Nations. I think that Parliament’s report represents an additional strong signal of support from the European Union at this challenging moment for the UN.
After the Iraq crisis many in the international community have made great efforts to find our way back towards collective action, including renewed UN engagement in Iraq. Of course, it is not enough to keep referring to multilateralism over and over again as though it was some mantra. We need to think seriously and creatively about the kinds of results we want to obtain from multilateral organisations and instruments. How can we improve their effectiveness in dealing with the threats and challenges that the world is facing? These include poverty reduction, weapons of mass destruction, failed states, international crime, terrorism, climate change. And how best can we contribute to that endeavour? All these goals are addressed by the Parliament’s report and there is a broad meeting of minds with the Commission’s own communication on the subject.
It is clear that our common starting point is the belief that the UN system is the key to safeguarding international security in the largest sense of that term. Whether we are looking at the role of the International Atomic Energy Agency in checking the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, or whether we are looking at global targets for poverty reduction and sustainable development, I hardly need to underline the importance of the so-called soft issues for the wider security agenda. Development and security are inextricably linked and mutually dependent. It is in this perspective that we should support the work of the high-level panel on UN reform established by the Secretary-General last year. The European Union should provide an input to this process and I welcome the intention of the Council presidency to work on the submission of an EU contribution. The Commission will participate actively in this exercise.
Finally, as regards the European Union’s own internal coordination and operations of the UN, I am pleased to see that the Commission’s analysis and recommendations are very much in line with those that are presented in the honourable Member’s admirable report. As for the creation and subsequent implementation of multilateral instruments, the Commission shares the report’s opinion that the European Union should play a leading role and assist third countries in fulfilling their obligations, as we have done, for example, in relation to counter-terrorism. Parliament could in this context use its cooperation with third countries to address these kinds of issues and in that way help to build bridges between North and South.
Let me conclude by commending the report to the House and by underlining as well the Commission’s determination to work closely with the Parliament, with the Council and with the UN to implement the recommendations that are contained in it."@en1
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