Mr.Chairman, Distinguished delegates,
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States and, as
such, welcome the importance given this year to the regional level of discussions on transport,
waste, chemicals, mining, sustainable consumption and production and their interlinking
issues, as topics of the CSD18-19 cycle.
The EU believes CSD plays a unique role in sustainable development issues within the UN
system and needs the capacity to deliver ambitious results. One of its key added values is to
review and decide on different aspects of sustainable development in an integrated manner,
through taking into account regional differences, as well as best practices as challenges.
Let me also take this opportunity to warmly welcome UNDESA's approach to highlight the
added value of strategic regional discussions already in the beginning of the CSD18 meeting.
However, we felt that more opportunity could be made of this session, particularly to hear the
views of the major groups. We may wish to collectively review how to maximize
participation in these sessions. The important contribution of major groups for the regional
discussions and for the work of the CSD in general should also be positively noted in this
context.
We were happy to share our experience with colleagues yesterday and we also listened
carefully to what other countries and regions had to say.
We noted with interest the importance given to food security in various regional discussions.
The EU certainly has food security also high on its agenda. When we established the ? 1
billion Food Facility at the end of 2008, we wanted to get it off the ground as quickly as
possible to respond effectively to the food price crisis of 2007/8. Today, we can say the
initiative is extremely effective around the world, thanks to the constructive cooperation with
UN family organisations and effective coordination with other existing institutions. If the
response is built on each agency?s comparative advantages and if priorities are identified
through inclusive needs assessments, it can lead to concrete results in a very short period of
time. Nearly all of the ? 1 billion has been committed by now and many projects have become
operational and will be implemented further in 2010 and 2011. At the same time, the projects
do support national strategies, where available, thus enhancing country ownership. In Africa,
the geographic thematic cluster of CSD17, the Comprehensive African Agriculture
Development Programme (CAADP) provides the ideal framework within which to operate
with this and other assistance. The EU would also like to acknowledge the further
development of the Global Partnership for Agriculture and Food Security since the
completion of CSD17.
We also greatly value partnerships between regions. As an example, by our Cooperation with
Africa, the EU gives top priority to the EU-Africa Strategy and preparations are intensifying
on the 2010 Africa-EU Summit. The EU and the African Union are collaborating on a number
of concrete partnerships ranging from energy to climate change, peace and security and
science and research. In November, both an Agreement on implementation of the European
Commission - African Union Commission Action Plan for the exchange of officials, as well
as a Joint Action Plan for Administrative Cooperation (2010) were concluded. Most of the
activities identified in the action plan centre on capacity building through sharing, learning,
benchmarking and direct training.
More generally, the EU is the world?s biggest donor providing 60 percent of overall Official
Developement Assistance. The overarching goal of the EU development policy is to eradicate
poverty in a context of sustainable development including the achievement of the Millenium
Development Goals. We are therefore fully committed to reaching tangible results at the High
Level MDG meeting in September 2010, and to accelerate progress towards achieveing the
MDGs, particularly MDG7.
Yesterday, we also heard many regions, for example Latin America, talking about the
challenges related to chemicals and waste. We believe that the Strategic Approach to
International Chemical Management (SAICM) constitutes important and irreplaceable global
framework for strengthening capacities for sound chemicals management, and narrowing the
capacity gap between the developing qnd the developed world.
I am also happy to highlight here another successful partnership, between Asia and Europe,
the SWITCH programme, which is a 90 million Euro initiative, focusing on sustainable
consumption and production (SCP) for SMEs and directly contributes to sustainable growth
and the fight against poverty. We are currently looking into the possibility of extending this
programme to other regions as well in case there is interest for such.
There is definitely a need to switch our consumption and production patterns and we have
heard yesterday very interesting experiences indeed:
- The African 10 years framework of programs already launched is action oriented and has a
strategic focuson linking SCP with the challenges of meeting basic needs in a more
sustainable manner;
- For the Arab group as well, a roundtable on SCP has identified 6 main sectors to be focussed
on during the next 10 years;
- We have also listened with attention to the experience of the Rio group, that SCP meets the
challenge of ensuring basic needs for growing populationwith high poverty rates and with the
involvement of production sector.
To accelerate the shift towards Sustainable Consumption and Production, the EU and its
Members States are also committed to shaping and launching a 10-year framework of
programmes (10YFP).
In addition to contributing to the goal of changing unsustainable consumption and production
patterns, the 10YFP can also be a major response to the current political demand for input on
how to green our economies.
We are looking forward to a further exchange of views in the upcoming days on a common
vision for the 10YFP without delay, and to share our experiences while also learning from the
experiences of other regions concerning efforts to promote SCP patterns.
I thank you for your attention.
