Mr. Chair,

I have the honour to deliver this statement on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.

The Candidate Countries Türkiye, North Macedonia*, Serbia*, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova align themselves with this statement.

Let me begin by thanking the co-facilitators of this resolution, Mr. Ahmed Seedat of South Africa and Mr. Rodolfo Reta Haddad of Mexico, for guiding us through the consultations.

Financing for Development is the biggest challenge in order to achieve the 2030 Agenda. At the same time the international community is in a unique moment of having a chance to address this challenge – we are at the critical juncture after the adoption of the Pact for the Future and just months before the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development.

Hence this year’s resolution on the Follow-up to and implementation of the outcomes of the International Conferences on Financing for Development serves as a gentle reminder of the task which lies ahead of us.

The EU approached this year’s negotiations with a constructive spirit. We listened carefully to the proponents of this resolution who argued that due to the particular moment we are in we should refrain from engaging on the substance, but rather technically update this resolution. The EU believes that together we have achieved this goal, while retaining valuable achievements of our predecessors.

In this context, the EU would like to clarify its position with regard to the operative paragraph 33, which mandates the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its eightieth session on the outcome of FfD4. This paragraph in resolution 78/231 stipulated also that the report shall present “emerging challenges and key accelerators for financing for development that may be relevant for future discussions in the framework of the Economic and Social Council forum on financing for development follow-up”. The EU, while agreeing to the shortened formulation, without the reference to ECOSOC, interprets paragraph 33 of the resolution just adopted as not determining, or prejudging any decisions on the potential follow-up mechanisms to the Fourth Conference, or frameworks in which future discussions on this topic may take place. Those decisions are to be made in the course of careful deliberations during FfD4, and not through a technical update of an annual resolution.

Moreover, the EU would like to underline that the preparatory process to FfD4 consists of several stages, one of which is the one-day Intersessional Multi-stakeholder Hearing, already  held in New York on 28 October this year. While the EU is pleased to see that a separate operative paragraph takes note of the hearing, we would like to underscore that we welcome that event, the same as we welcome the convening of all meetings of the intergovernmental preparatory committee in an earlier paragraph.

With this explanation of position, the EU is happy to join consensus on this resolution. We are looking forward to engaging openly, fully and constructively in the deliberations leading up to and during FfD4.

Last but not least, we are pleased to see that this resolution welcomes the convening of the Summit of the Future on 22-23 September 2024 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, at which resolution 79/1 entitled “The Pact for the Future” and its annexes were adopted. As the Pact for the Future clearly refers to the questions related to financing for development, the EU has supported this.

Thank you very much.

*North Macedonia and Serbia continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.