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UN Reform: the Way Ahead and the EU's Role

UN Reform: the Way Ahead and the EU's Role

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About this Event

14 Sep 2005

UN Reform: the Way Ahead and the EU's Role

About the Speech:

Lord Hannay says that outcome of UN Summit will be “two cheers?, and commends the EU for its role

On the 14th September, the day the United Nations Summit of heads of state and government opened in New York, Lord David Hannay gave a keynote address at the Institute of European Affairs on “UN Reform : The Way Ahead and the EU’s Role?.

Lord Hannay briefly alluded to the history of the UN, underlining that the proposals put forward for reform by the UN Secretary-General ahead of the Summit had been the most far-reaching since the creation of the organisation in 1945. Since 1991, when President Bush senior had proclaimed a “new world order?, these high expectations had been disappointed, the UN having chalked up a number of well-publicised failures, as well as some successes.

Lord Hannay attributed the failures of the UN since 1991 to three main factors: 1) The lack of a detailed analysis of threats and challenges; 2) consequently, no collective decisions had been made on the appropriate response to these, and the UN was not given the resources and political support it required; 3) a rift had opened up between key member states on the use of force in cases such as the widescale violation of human rights.

In light of these shortcomings, Lord Hannay described the proposals put on the table by the UN Secretary-General prior to the summit as a “major step forward?, notably their recognition of the interdependence between security and development, and their specific recommendations on peacebuilding, the UN human rights machinery and addressing terrorism, among others. However, due primarily to the position of “spoilers?, i.e. states not willing to support UN reform, he concluded that the result of the Summit would be “two cheers?, not three, at most. Nevertheless, he added that important, if limited, progress has been made on key issues, and that the challenge will now be to effectively and fully implement what has been agreed.

Moving on to the role of the European Union (EU) in its support of UN reform, he praised the EU for having reached consensus on all of the UN reform agenda points, setting aside the question of the UN Security Council. He underlined that without the active role of the EU in supporting reform, there would have been much less progress still. As a major actor that collectively, i.e. counting the contribution of the EU and its member states, provides 40-50% of the budget for just about all UN activities, the EU should insist on having a say in the way the UN runs its affairs, thus contributing to the shaping of policy, rather than just “writing the cheques?. He finished by noting that the EU, and especially its member states, must do better to publicise the positive role that it plays in world affairs, if it is to regain some of the public confidence that has been lacking during the recent referenda on the Constitutional Treaty for Europe.

Recent comment by Lord Hannay - Keep United Nations reform on track (Financial Times)

About the Speaker:

David Hannay was born in London on 28 September 1935 and educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford. He entered the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1959, and was initially posted to Tehran and Kabul. Starting in 1965 and continuing into the early 1970s, he was involved in the negotiations that led to the UK 's entry into the European Communities.

During the 1970s he did a four-year spell in the European Commission in Brussels; and was then, after his return to the diplomatic service, involved with energy and Middle Eastern policy. From 1979 to 1983, he was Under-Secretary (European Communities) at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He was minister at the British Embassy in Washington DC in 1984-5, and was then promoted to ambassador and permanent representative to the European Communities from 1985-90. From 1990 to 1995, he was ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations.

Following his retirement from the diplomatic service, he was the British Special Representative for Cyprus between 1996 and 2003, and a member of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, which submitted its report in December 2004.

In 2001 he was created a life peer. He was pro-Chancellor of the University of Birmingham from 2001 to 2006. In 2003 he was made a Companion of Honour. Since January 2006, he has been Chair of the Board of UNA-UK.

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