Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-09-28-Speech-3-271"
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"en.20050928.24.3-271"2
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". Mr President, I was proud to be at the Millennium Summit and at the ministerial week that followed. It was the biggest gathering of world leaders ever seen and I hope it will usher in a new era of international cooperation. Despite all the criticism – which I myself also made – we must clearly state that the United Nations lies at the bedrock of modern world order.
Finally, a word on the United Nations management reforms. I think it is very important that the Secretary-General not only has accountability and responsibility, but also gets the authority to lead this management reform and be able to implement it.
The outcome – as my colleague has mentioned already – has been mixed, but the glass is half full and not half empty. The European Union was very ambitious and took the lead, together with President Jean Ping of the United Nations General Assembly. In the end, we could not achieve everything we wanted. That is normal at multilateral gatherings. One has high ambitions but in the end one has to compromise.
Having said that, there are a number of very important achievements and other matters on which we were disappointed. What were the achievements? For the Commission it was remarkable to have the Millennium Development Goals enshrined in the Millennium Declaration. That was thanks to my colleague Mr Michel. I am happy to say that the European Union has set the example with 0.56% up to 2010 and 0.7% up to 2015. That showed that other colleagues, especially from the developing countries, were very happy about it. This reaffirmation of acknowledgement of the Millennium Development Goals as a galvanizing framework for development efforts has been achieved for the first time at an intergovernmental level.
The second great achievement was the endorsement of the principle of responsibility to protect populations from atrocities. This was a major success because it redefines the concept of sovereignty as a positive concept, putting human beings at the core of security concerns. That should enhance the credibility of the international community, and the United Nations means to act in the face of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. I come from a country close to the Balkans and remember the Kosovo intervention. That intervention has in a way triggered this new development of international law and, for the first time, this enshrining of the development goals.
The third achievement was the Peace-building Commission, which is an important concrete result that should make the international community’s response to the needs of countries dealing with the aftermath of conflicts more effective and coordinated. The Commission has been working with all the same factors, from humanitarian efforts to reconstruction efforts and institution building, to trade and all questions surrounding democracy and human rights; from military peacekeeping missions to election observation missions. All that will now be coordinated in the Peace-building Commission and we therefore feel that the Commission there has to have its place at the table.
There are other matters on which I personally was disappointed. The first of these relates to the Human Rights Council. It was more of a name change than a real achievement, but at least the principle has been accepted and we hope that together we can work to make the new human rights architecture a better, more crucial one, together with the new President of the General Assembly, Jan Eliasson. It is important to have a strong, credible, standing institution comprising Member States that have a human rights credit.
On the other hand, there were some positive steps on human rights, such as the doubling of the budget for the Human Rights Special High Representative, which opens up the possibility of direct action in the field. I also note with encouragement that the summit outcome contains a resolution to 'strengthen the United Nations human rights machinery with the aim of ensuring effective enjoyment by all of human rights'.
Another negative point was the whole question of disarmament. It was described by the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan as nothing less than a disgrace. We clearly have to go on working on that very important item.
There are two further questions, one of which is the environment. Environmental sustainability is instrumental in our fight against poverty, for stabilisation and for greater security. Especially now, with the tsunami, Katrina and Rita, and floods in the European Union, a real United Nations environmental organisation would have been the right response by the international community."@en1
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