In the beginning, there
were 51 nations committed to international peace and
security, sharing the common goal of developing
friendly relations among nations, and promoting social
progress, better living standards and human rights.
Today, the 51 nations of the first session of the General
Assembly have become 192. Today, the General
Assembly really is the town hall meeting of the world.
On behalf of the 27 States members of the
European Union (EU), I bring a message of
cooperation and partnership — a message that our
Union is open to the outside world.
Globalization is good. Through globalization,
hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of
poverty; information, ideas and inventions shared;
goods and services provided. It all moves quickly from
one country to another. We prosper from this. It
enlightens us. It helps us to understand the ways of
other parts of the world.
At the same time, globalization means that one
nation’s problems will also come knocking at the doors
of other nations. Pandemics, food crises, organized
crime, trafficking in drugs and humans, terrorism and
violent ideologies are no longer limited by borders and
no longer only one nation’s problem. And so, we have
to manage the risks and threats that follow.
In this work, we need the United Nations broad-
based legitimacy for international actions and norms to
coordinate our efforts. And the United Nations, for its
part, has to adapt in order to stay relevant and to be
able to address the issues before us. The European
Union wishes to contribute to these efforts.
We welcome the declared wish of the United
States to work together with others in multilateral
institutions. This opens the door to a promising new
era in international cooperation.
We are facing one of the biggest challenges of
our generation. Our world has a fever, and the fever is
rising. In the most vulnerable of the world’s nations,
the consequences of climate change will be alarming.
Starvation, severe flooding and climate migration will
be a reality even if we keep to the two-degree target set
by the United Nations.
No doubt, developed countries will have to lead
the fight against climate change. By 2020, we will have
to reduce emissions by 25 to 40 per cent from 1990
levels. But if emissions are to peak by no later than
2020, to be reduced by at least 50 per cent by 2050 and
to continue to decline thereafter, our efforts alone will
not be enough. The developing countries need our help.
They need our help to pay the bill that we, through our
emissions, have contributed to.
That is why the European Union last week agreed
to start discussions on how much climate financing is
needed in developing countries. That is why we are
taking concrete steps. That is why we are putting one
more brick into the negotiations, and urge other
developed countries to do the same.
At the meeting of the leaders of the G-8 and the
Major Economies Forum in Italy this summer, there
was agreement on the two-degree target. Now, we need
to see increased commitment and concrete mid-term
targets from developed as well as developing countries.
If we want our children and their children to
experience nature as we know it, we must act now. And
every nation or group of nations has to do its part.
The EU is willing to do its part. We will reduce
our emissions. We will promote low carbon growth,
contribute our fair share of financing and support
adaptation worldwide. And we will remain committed
to playing a lead role in bringing about a global and
comprehensive climate agreement in Copenhagen in
December.
What started out as the pursuit of easy money,
unhealthy risk-taking and, in some cases, pure greed
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escalated this past year into a financial roller coaster.
The effects on both human security and development
have been severe. The European Union will continue to
promote global financial stability and sustainable
world recovery, firmly committed to taking
comprehensive, targeted and coordinated action to
support developing countries, especially the poorest
and the most vulnerable; determined to reach a
comprehensive agreement at the Doha Round, making
sure it contains elements of real value for developing
countries, particularly the poorest; and continuing its
efforts to lift more people out of poverty in reaching
the Millennium Development Goals and to achieve our
respective official development assistance targets.
Human rights are universal. Human rights are
indivisible. The European Union is a voice for human
rights. We believe in democracy. We believe in the rule
of law. The European Union will continue to call for
the worldwide abolition of the death penalty in all
cases and under all circumstances. We will continue to
stand up for the empowerment of women and gender
equality. Without that, it will be impossible to draw on
all those talents that are needed for a nation to move
from poverty to development and prosperity.
To uphold those fundamental values, we need
security. We cannot let war crimes, genocide or crimes
against humanity go unpunished. Therefore, the work
of the International Criminal Court is fully supported
by the European Union. We cannot allow anyone, by
threat or use of force, to act against the territorial
integrity or political independence of any State. The
rules of international law apply equally to all States,
large and small.
The European Union stands ready to continue
working with the United Nations in peacekeeping and
peacebuilding. We also conduct our own peacekeeping
efforts, often in close cooperation with the United
Nations. The transfers of responsibilities in Chad and
in Kosovo are examples of that.
Twenty years after the end of the cold war, peace
and security are still threatened by the proliferation of
weapons of mass destruction and by the fact that those
weapons risk falling into the wrong hands. We strongly
urge the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to
renounce nuclear weapons, and we stand ready to
engage in that matter. We also welcome the global
nuclear security summit that will take place next year.
Europe and Africa are close in geography, but
also through globalization and strong partnership. The
European Union provides support to Africa when
needed. Our naval operation Atalanta, off the coast of
Somalia, protects vessels delivering humanitarian aid
and provides support to the African Union Mission in
Somalia. We have for many years cooperated with the
United Nations in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo.
We speak out on injustice on the African
continent. The use of sexual violence as a weapon of
intimidation and terror is appalling. The attacks on
women and girls in eastern Congo and other places are
unacceptable. To protect we must empower; and so, to
empower women in conflict situations, Security
Council resolutions 1325 (2000) and 1820 (2008) have
to be implemented.
We wish to see a free, democratic and prosperous
Africa. That is especially true in the case of Zimbabwe.
The Global Political Agreement and the formation of
the Government of National Unity were important
steps forward. However, implementing the Agreement
requires commitment. It requires a spirit of
cooperation. In that regard, much remains to be done.
Europe is a union of many cultures. Our openness
to the world around us is evident in the fact that
Christians, Jews and Muslims, those who believe in
God and those who do not, can live side by side in
mutual respect. The European Union wishes to enhance
its interaction with the Muslim world through the
Alliance of Civilizations and through cooperation in
education and development by providing opportunities
for the young. In that way, we can create an
environment that will allow us to focus on what we
have in common rather than on our perceived
differences.
Afghan children show the same curiosity as
children all over the world, including my own, longing
for knowledge, wanting to take part and full of
excitement over what life has to offer. In order to
invest in the future of Afghanistan and in human
development, we cannot let their light be shut out. As a
friend of the people of Afghanistan, the European
Union is committed to assisting them in stabilizing,
democratizing and developing their country. Education,
also for young girls and women, is indispensable. In
the years ahead, we need to do more to ensure that this
is the way forward for Afghanistan.
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As a partner of Pakistan, we know that what
happens in Pakistan influences not only the Pakistanis,
but the development of the region as a whole.
Therefore, it is crucial to continue to assist Pakistan in
its efforts to develop the rule of law and to build a
more stable and more democratic society.
As a friend of the people of Israel, we tell the
Israeli Government to reach out for peace, to end
occupation, to respect international law, to work for a
two-State solution, to immediately end all settlement
activities on occupied land, including East Jerusalem,
and to end the isolation of Gaza.
As a friend of the Palestinians, we expect them to
stop all violent acts against Israel, to continue to build
viable State institutions and to develop democracy and
the rule of law. We will continue both to provide
financial support to the Palestinian Authority and to
assist in capacity-building on the ground. In that
regard, the European Union fully supports the United
States efforts to resume peace negotiations and to stand
ready to actively contribute to their success. The future
of both Israel and Palestine lies in that cooperation.
As a friend of the people of Iran, we are
concerned about the deteriorating human rights
situation and the violent crackdown on popular
protests. The Iranian nuclear issue represents a major
challenge to international peace and security, to
regional stability and to the non-proliferation regime.
Iran must regain the trust of the international
community, comply with relevant Security Council
resolutions and contribute to peace in the Middle East.
As a friend of the people of Burma/Myanmar, we
will tell the military leaders that only democracy and
human rights can bring peace and stability to the
people that they say they represent.
The Swedish statesman and former United
Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld once
said that the pursuit of peace and progress, with its
trials and its errors, its successes and its setbacks, can
never be relaxed and never abandoned. That was true
then and it is true today. The people of the world need
to know that uniting nations is a work not of the past,
but of the future, carried forward by shared values and
by mutual respect and ever more relevant with
increased globalization.
In that common endeavour, the European Union
will remain a reliable partner on security, development
and human rights, always contributing actively to
improving and strengthening the United Nations,
always continuing to refine the instruments needed to
deal with opportunities and threats alike, and always
willing to do its part in helping to create a better world
to live in for future generations, everywhere.