The European Parliament adopted a Recommendation to the Council on the 65th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.

The recommendation covers six priority issues the Council should address at the 65th session which starts in September 2010: i) the EU's place at the UN, ii) world governance and UN reform, iii) peace and security, iv) development, v) climate change and vi) human rights.

1) The European Union at the United Nations: noting that the current structure of the UN Security Council does not reflect the realities and needs of the 21st century, Parliament invites the Council to:

strengthen, through enhanced dialogue with key partners, effective multilateralism in order to build a stronger UN; seek to project itself within the UN system as an honest broker between different membership groups; push for solutions that allow the Union's empowered external role and increased responsibility to be more visible; ensure that the EU speaks with a single voice in order to make its position heard; ensure that the Union's values and interests are represented in an effective and coherent way in the UN system; seek more substantive cooperation and dialogue with the new US administration and with emerging global and regional players like China, India and Brazil, with the aim of finding a common agenda and common solutions to global challenges; to improve the Union's long-term planning specifically with regard to major upcoming UN events such as the MDG Review and the NPT Review Conference in 2010.

2) Global governance and UN reform: Parliament urges the Vice-President/High Representative (VP/HR) to build a more cohesive position among EU Member States on the reform of the UN Security Council and emphasises that an EU seat in an enlarged Security Council remains a goal of the European Union.

The main recommendations are as follows:

to take a lead in the current debate on global governance and to ensure that clear bridges exist between the work of the G20 and the UN, as the legitimate body for global action; to promote stronger participation by national and transnational parliaments in UN activities; to contribute to implementing the new gender architecture.

3) Peace and security: Parlieament emphasises the need to define better the notion of the principle of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), and its importance in preventing conflicts while encouraging its implementation.

On peacekeeping and peacebuilding, Parliament recommends that the EU take a lead in finding a new horizon for UN peacekeeping by emphasising civilian-military synergies and by improving coordination between various regional partners, in particular between the EU and the African Union. It also recommends that the Council strive for a coherent EU position and actions with regard to the review of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) in 2011, and support efforts to expand the role of the PBC.

On nuclear disarmament, Parliament calls on the Council to:

work with EU Member States towards achieving a successful outcome of the 2010 NPT Review Conference and to commit to the aim of complete nuclear disarmament in line with UN Security Council resolution 1887; support the US administration in its commitment to global nuclear disarmament encouraged by President Obama's vision of a world without nuclear weapons; underline the need for effective arms control, including small arms and ammunitions containing depleted uranium; strengthen cooperation and coordination with key partners in the fight against terrorism on the basis of full respect for international law and human rights

4) Development and climate change: Parliament wants the EU to exercise leadership in strengthening the effectiveness of UN development assistance and considers that there needs to be a more coherent UN programming and operational framework to help maximise the impact of UN development assistance. In its view, the crisis not be used as an excuse to avoid or delay the necessary global response to climate change and environmental degradation. On the contrary, the response to the crisis should be used as an opportunity to establish the basis of a new and modern green economy.

In preparation for the MDG Review Conference, the EU should reconfirm its commitment to the MDG targets to be reached by 2015 and urge all partners to do the same, pointing to the fact that donors are falling short on their 2005 pledges on annual aid flows and that overall progress has been too slow for most of the goals to be met by 2015, notably on maternal health and infant mortality.

The Council should: i) give a clear signal that a new, even more ambitious agenda for poverty eradication will be adopted before 2015, ii) propose innovative funding mechanisms such as an international tax on financial transactions; iii) reassert its collective commitment to allocate 0.7% of GNI on ODA by 2015, based on clear and binding timetables for each Member State.

5) Climate change: Parliament recommends promoting a debate in view of the forthcoming Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP16) in Mexico in December 2010 and to start building consensus on the adoption of a new binding international agreement on climate change for the period post-2012. It wants to avoid the mistakes of COP15 in Copenhagen which failed to deliver an international binding agreement, by suggesting specific voting rules, based on significant majorities, in order to facilitate progress in the negotiations.

6) Human rights: Parliament invites the VP/HR to speak with one voice on behalf of all EU Member States when addressing human rights issues, and also to call on each Member State to emphasise those unified EU positions in order to give them more weight. It wants the Council to:

achieve an efficient proactive negotiation strategy as well as a common position on the 2011 review of the Human Rights Council (HRC); agree with cross-regional partners in the HRC review on membership criteria and set of guidelines to be used during the election of the HRC; exercise leadership in the promotion and protection of human rights, including the rights of members of vulnerable groups and minorities, freedom of expression and free media, freedom of religion, the rights of the child, the protection of human rights defenders and cooperation with civil society; concentrate efforts to reinforce the global trend towards the abolition of death penalty.

On gender mainstreaming, the resolution states that the Council should strive to empower more women so they can fulfil their vital role in contributing to sustainable peace, security and reconciliation as well as to promote their participation in mediation and conflict resolution, also in view of the upcoming 10th anniversary of UNSC Resolution 1325.

Lastly, Members suggest that the EU should make efforts to include a separate item on the agenda of the 65th UNGA concerning cooperation between the United Nations Organisation, regional assemblies, national parliaments and the Interparliamentary Union (IPU) in order to foster debate on how parliamentarians, national parliaments and regional parliamentary assemblies can play a more active role in the United Nations.

The Committee on Foreign Affairs adopted the own-initiative report drawn up by Alexander Graf LAMBSDORFF (ALDE, DE) on a proposal for a European Parliament recommendation to the Council on the 65th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. The recommendation covers six priority issues that the committee feels the Council should address at the 65th session which starts in September 2010: the EU's place at the UN, world governance and UN reform, peace and security, development, human rights and climate change.

The European Union at the United Nations : Members note that the current structure of the UN Security Council does not reflect the realities and needs of the 21st century. They also note that the EU and its Member States are the largest contributors to the UN system providing around 40 per cent of the assessed budget of the UN, over 40% of the peacekeeping costs and 12% of troops, as well as over half of the core funding of the UN funds and programmes.

Recommendations include the following:

to strengthen effective multilateralism in order to build a stronger UN; to foster the common, coherent and consistent EU approach at the UN that third parties expect; to seek to project itself within the UN system as an honest broker between different membership groups; to push for solutions that allow the Union's empowered external role to be more visible, and to ensure that the EU Delegation to the United Nations in New York is adequately equipped to cope with its enhanced role, particularly in terms of staff; to ensure that the EU speaks with a single voice in order to make its position heard, while drawing lessons from the climate conference in Copenhagen in December 2009; to ensure that the Union's interests are represented in an effective way ,and to project itself as a cohesive force that is able to deliver, especially on significant votes; to seek more substantive dialogue with the new US administration and with China, India and Brazil, with the aim of finding common solutions to global challenges; to improve the Union's long-term planning specifically with regard to major UN events such as the MDG Review and the NPT Review Conference in 2010.

Global governance and UN reform : Members urge the Vice-President/High Representative (VP/HR) to build a more cohesive position among EU Member States on the reform of the UN Security Council and to emphasise that an EU seat in an enlarged Security Council remains a goal of the European Union .

Amongst recommendations to the Council are the following:

ensure that clear bridges exist between the work of the G20 and the UN , as the legitimate body for global action; stress the need for a comprehensive reform of the Security Council in all its aspects.

Peace and Security : Members emphasised the need to define better the notion of the principle of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) , and its importance in preventing conflicts. They also want to see a UN resolution on sea-dumped chemical weapons and the threat they present to ecology, health, security and the economy.

On peacekeeping and peacebuilding, the committee recommends that the EU take a lead in finding a new horizon for UN peacekeeping by emphasising civilian-military synergies and by improving coordination between various regional partners, in particular between the EU and the African Union. It also recommends that the Council strive for a coherent EU position and actions with regard to the review of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) in 2011, and support efforts to expand the role of the PBC.

On nuclear disarmament , Members want the Council to:

work with EU Member States towards achieving a successful outcome of the 2010 NPT Review Conference and to commit to the aim of complete nuclear disarmament in line with UN Security Council resolution 1887; support the US administration in its commitment to global nuclear disarmament encouraged by President Obama's vision of a world without nuclear weapons.

Development and climate change : Members want the EU to exercise leadership in strengthening the effectiveness of UN development assistance since the current fragmentation may lead to progressive marginalisation of the UN as a primary actor in development. There needs to be a more coherent UN programming and operational framework to help maximise the impact of UN development assistance.

In preparation for the MDG Review Conference , the EU should reconfirm its commitment to the MDG targets to be reached by 2015 and urge all partners to do the same, pointing to the fact that donors are falling short on their 2005 pledges on annual aid flows and that overall progress has been too slow for most of the goals to be met by 2015, notably on maternal health (MDG 5). The report underlines that the international community has to make additional efforts to tackle the adverse effects of the global economic crisis and climate change on developing countries. The Council should propose innovative funding mechanisms such as an international tax on financial transactions . It must also reassert its collective commitment to allocate 0.7% of GNI on ODA by 2015, based on clear and binding timetables for each Member State.

The committee goes on to recommend promoting a debate in view of the forthcoming Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP16) in Mexico in December 2010 and to start building consensus on the adoption of a new binding international agreement on climate change for the period post-2012. It wants to avoid the mistakes of COP15 in Copenhagen which failed to deliver an international binding agreement, by suggesting specific voting rules, based on significant majorities, in order to facilitate progress in the negotiations.

Human Rights : the report urges the VP/HR to speak with one voice on behalf of all EU Member States when addressing human rights issues, and also to call on each Member State to emphasise those unified EU positions in order to give them more weight. It wants to:

achieve an efficient proactive negotiation strategy as well as a common position on the 2011 review of the Human Rights Council (HRC); strongly advocate that the UN General Assembly continue to address country specific situations in resolutions while working to avoid the use of 'No Action Motions'; concentrate efforts to reinforce the global trend towards the abolition of death penalty.

On gender mainstreaming , the report states that those EU Member States who have not yet become active in this respect to produce national action plans (NAPs) to implement UNSC Resolution 1325.

Lastly, the report wants the EU to make efforts to include a separate item on the agenda of the 65th UNGA concerning cooperation between the UN, regional assemblies, national parliaments and the Interparliamentary Union (IPU) in order to foster debate on how parliamentarians, national parliaments and regional parliamentary assemblies can play a more active role in the UN.

Pursuant to Rule 121(1) of the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament, Alexander Graf LAMBSDORFF (ALDE, DE) tabled a proposal for a recommendation to the Council on behalf of the ALDE group on the 65th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.

The draft recommendation recalls that EU foreign policy is based on strong and unequivocal support for effective multilateralism, as embodied in the United Nations Charter and that the European Union is a key political and financial partner for the UN. It stresses that the long-overdue reform of the UN Security Council has yet to be achieved.

Furthermore, it is underlined that the coordination of EU Member States’ positions within the United Nations should be improved following the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty on 1 December 2009. This coordination requires closer cooperation between the new European External Action Service, the relevant Brussels-based Council working groups, the EU Delegation Office and the Member States’ Permanent Representations in New York.

Given that the Lisbon Treaty conferred legal personality upon the EU, a new development which will have major repercussions as regards the representation of the European Union at the UN, the following recommendations have been made to the Council:

Visibility of the European Union at the United Nations : the European Parliament

calls for the Union’s political priorities for the next UN General Assembly session to be the subject of an in-depth, wide-ranging debate in Brussels and to be spelt out in a formal position of the Vice-President of the Commission/High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy; considers that this formal position should be regarded by the Permanent Representations in New York as a binding political platform to be used as a basis for negotiations with other countries; urges the Vice-President/High Representative to represent the Union at the United Nations.

The EU’s contribution to the reform of the United Nations : the European Parliament

urges the Vice-President/High Representative to speak on behalf of all the Member States when addressing human rights issues, but also points out that it is important for each Member State to voice the EU’s position, in order to give it more weight; calls on the Vice-President/High Representative to build a more cohesive position among the Member States on the reform of the UN Security Council and to ask them for a clear mandate to advocate this position at the UN.