Final – for publication

Excellencies, distinguished delegates,

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

The Candidate Countries North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Georgia, as well as Monaco and San Marino align themselves with this statement. 

Let me begin by congratulating your Excellency, Ambassador Dibba, on your appointment as Chair of the Second Committee, as well as the other members of the Bureau. Please rest assured of our full support. 

As we convene for the 80th session of the General Assembly, the international community faces a complex and fragile landscape. Conflicts, acts of aggression, terrorism, poverty and deepening inequalities, and the consequences of the ”perfect storm” of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss threaten to reverse years of hard-won progress. These challenges necessitate effective multilateral cooperation, grounded in the principles of the UN Charter, and the broader framework of international law -- in particular international humanitarian and human rights law -- more so than ever. We must all deliver on our commitments. There are less than five years to go to 2030, the deadline we set for delivering on the sustainable development goals.  Everybody needs to roll up their sleeves and get working. 

In this final stretch, we are not starting from scratch. We have recently achieved important milestones of multilateralism that we must build on: UNOC3, FFD4, LLDC3, to mention a few highlights. The World Social Summit will also shortly confirm commitments, among others, on eradicating poverty, and ensuring decent work and social inclusion.  

And, of course, the adoption of the Pact for the Future last year provided us with the shared blueprint for the way ahead.  It remains our roadmap towards the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs. 

Colleagues, the UN is at a complex moment of change, and the UN80 process will also need to be reflected in our work. It will be challenging but it is necessary to ensure the health, relevance, and continued effective functioning of the organisation. Every part of the UN, including the Second Committee, has to contribute to this process through its deliberations and revitalisation processes, including by reviewing mandates that will be discussed by the Working Group. We need to avoid crowding our agenda with yet more new resolutions, prioritise, and start implementing together the things that we have already agreed.

For this main session of the Second Committee, in negotiating texts of the 40 + draft resolutions put forward, the EU and its Member States will be guided by three overall priorities:

First, implementation of shared commitments:  After the hard work and deliberations that went into the Pact for the Future and its annexes, the UNOC3, the FFD4 and the WSS, it is time to consolidate what we have agreed and translate our political commitments into actionable follow up. This will be the priority, for example, across the macro and poverty eradication clusters of resolutions and horizontally across the board. This also continues to apply to the LDC5, LLDC3 and SIDS4 programmes of action, which are at different stages of implementation.

Second, addressing the perfect storm of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution: Unfortunately for the planet and humankind, climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution show no sign of abating. What’s worse is that the most dire impact is felt the hardest by those that are the least equipped to cope. We need to ensure that the General Assembly and its Committees in New York play their part in multilateral cooperation in combatting these existential crises and supporting the green transition in all parts of the world. Maintaining political momentum is not optional – it is a primordial matter of global solidarity and of leaving no one behind.   

Third, ensuring the future effectiveness and functioning of the 80-year-old UN: While the UN80 process will run in tandem, every committee and component of the UN has to do its part in reflecting on the mandates it manages and the resources that are needed for their implementation. This will be complicated but necessary so that we can maintain the high level of ambition on sustainable development and implementing the SDGs by 2030 as laid out in the 2030 Agenda. The EU is as committed to the future functioning of the UN as we have been for the past 80 years. We stand ready for the UN80 conversation and reflecting this on the work and areas of responsibility of the Second Committee, as a matter of priority. We just agreed to the GA Revitalization Resolution. Observing its recommendations -- the UN membership’s recommendations -- should be among our highest priorities.

Let me now turn to a few examples of how we will apply these priorities in practice, starting with the macroeconomic cluster of resolutions. Following from the successful conclusion of the FFD4 Conference in Seville in July, our focus should be on consolidating these commitments, unpacking them and considering, where most appropriate, concrete steps and modalities of implementation. We must ensure, as a priority, that financing for development is inclusive, transparent, and responsive to the needs of the most vulnerable. Strengthening national ownership and domestic resource mobilization, while enhancing international cooperation, harnessing private investment, and aligning financial flows with the SDGs are all essential to this effort – and enjoy broad consensus. 

The FFD follow-up process and cycle should be concretely translated into adjustments of this year’s FFD resolution, to [should] enable a smooth continuation of the existing process and clear prioritisation of the work going ahead. Not least to ensure that resources, including those of the UN Secretariat, are available where they are most needed and add value.  We must avoid duplication of work, and focus on what the UN does best or is best placed to do.  If we try to prioritise everything, we prioritise nothing.   

Another example of focussing on implementation will be the resolutions focussing on poverty eradication. In the run-up to the World Social Summit, we will aim to mainstream in a balanced way the interconnected commitments of eradication of poverty in all its forms and dimensions, promoting social inclusion, ensuring decent work for all, reducing inequalities within and among countries. We will also support universal social protection, and respect for labour rights, including Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. 

And of course, a coherent and coordinated approach to the resolutions on digital, science and technology is of utmost relevance this year. Much has been achieved: We welcomed the launch of the first Global Dialogue on AI governance, as well as the decision to establish an Independent International Scientific Panel on AI. By doing so, we are delivering on our promise to take action to promote scientific understanding of AI, and to ensure inclusive multi-stakeholder discussions on AI at the UN. Multi-stakeholder digital governance remains our main priority. 

Moving ahead, we will focus on the implementation of the Global Digital Compact (GDC), and foster digital cooperation and human-centric digital governance, to contribute to bridging the digital divides. The WSIS framework remains the primary backbone of the implementation of the digital dimension of the 2030 Agenda, in line with the GDC, promoting greater coherence and coordination across international digital governance processes. With the WSIS+20 review right around the corner, to ensure coherence, we would support a technical rollover on this year’s ICT and STI 2C resolutions, in anticipation of updating them next year following the outcomes of the High-level Meeting. 

Colleagues, one area where we need to double down is addressing the triple planetary crisis. Every day we are faced with growing evidence - be it the onset of more and more extreme weather events, rapid rises of ocean temperatures, ever increasing forest fires or other worrying or tragic phenomena - that the crisis is upon us and being exacerbated every day. Achieving sustainable consumption and production, and in particular the transition to a circular economy, will be key, but not enough. We must continue this fight on all its critical fronts! 

As was clearly demonstrated during the Secretary-General’s Special High-Level Event on Climate Action on 24 September, the science on climate change is undeniable and gravely concerning. However, while the world remains on a dangerous trajectory of potentially three degrees of warming, the science also shows that limiting the rise to 1.5°C is still within reach if countries strengthen their commitments and accelerate implementation in relation to mitigation, adaptation and climate financing. What’s more, these actions can deliver for sustainable development in the broadest sense, as the economic realities also show that investing in renewable energies is today a sound economic decision that can boost growth. 

The next climate COP in Bélem, Brazil, will be critical.  The Paris Agreement, which this year celebrates its 10^th anniversary, has created momentum, brought accountability and the first GST has identified what needs to be done. 

To be clear: new commitments are not taken in the Second Committee. Yet we should reflect the globally agreed efforts and goals and commitments as a part of our commitment to sustainable development, to which they are intrinsically linked. 

But beyond providing concrete expressions of Member States’ commitment to taking action against climate change, the high-level event on climate action also displayed a clear need for synergies between climate and biodiversity. 

On biodiversity, we look back at a successful COP16.2 of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Rome, while also looking ahead towards COP17 that will be held next year in Yerevan, Armenia. The Global Review of Implementation will be a particularly important milestone to make sure that the world is on track to fully and effectively implement the historic Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The upcoming entry into force of the BBNJ Agreement on 17 January 2026 and the subsequent first COP meeting are positive developments. They build on the political momentum generated by the successful Third UN Ocean Conference in Nice earlier this year. We must ensure that we reach the same level of political mobilization for the next UN Water Conference in December 2026 in the United Arab Emirates. The Second Committee has an important role to highlight our common commitment to these processes and maintain the political momentum on this integral dimension of sustainable development.   

But, Colleagues, the one area where we see a distinct gap in international dialogue, one that needs to be urgently filled, and where we need to reinforce our collective action, is on the scourge of pollution. Pollution severely impacts the health of humans, ecosystems, and our planet. The EU will therefore proactively bring ideas to the table on how to reinforce multilateral cooperation through the UN in this area, including on chemicals, waste, and plastic pollution. We invite other members to join us in this reflection. 

Colleagues, with only five years remaining to deliver, the 2030 Agenda and its sustainable development goals remain our ultimate goal. At the same time, sustainable development can grow lasting roots only in peaceful, democratic, and inclusive societies, where human rights and gender equality are respected, governance is transparent, and justice is accessible to all. These fundamentals need to be recognised as part and parcel of all three dimensions of sustainable development.   

Last but not least, the Second Committee must be part of the overall effort to make the UN system relevant, fit for purpose, and able to deliver concrete outcomes for the people on the ground. It is necessary to promote the effectiveness and impact of the system in order to preserve it, based on a results-oriented approach. Revitalisation, rationalisation, and prioritisation must be more than rhetoric to ensure sustainability of the UN itself. All of us who lead in financing, politically supporting, partnering, and implementing sustainable development on the ground  must seize the UN80 opportunity, as well as the upcoming ECOSOC review, to identify and reduce duplications, overlaps, and streamline our actions within the UN development system. 

Chair, colleagues, the Pact for the Future with its annexes has given us the framework to reinvigorate global governance. What we need now is urgency of implementation, ambition, and determination. As we mark the 80th anniversary of the United Nations, let us use this milestone to reaffirm our shared commitment to multilateralism, to the UN Charter and international law, to renewing the global social contract between peoples and nations, and, above all, to each other. We are confident that our collective efforts will lead to meaningful progress throughout this session. 

Thank you.