European Union at the United Nations

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The European Union (EU), the successor to the European Communities (EC), has been an observing member of the United Nations (UN) since 1974 . Since May 3, 2011, the EU has had an extended observer status in the General Assembly of the United Nations without having the right to vote. It is thus represented in the General Assembly alongside its 27 member states, one of which is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council .

history

On October 11, 1974 the European Economic Community (EEC) was granted permanent observer status by the 29th General Assembly of the United Nations . The EEC was the first non-governmental legal entity to receive this status.

Over time, observer status was granted in a large number of specialized agencies of the United Nations . In addition, she has been a full member of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) since 1991 and of the World Trade Organization (WTO) since 1995 . In 2001, the EU was the first non-governmental entity to host a summit of the UN Conference of Least Developed Countries .

The EU, created in 1992 by the Maastricht Treaty, was not itself represented in the UN until the Lisbon Treaty came into force , as it had no legal personality . The European Community therefore took on this representation between 1993 and 2009. So if up to this point only the European Community had observer status in the UN General Assembly and in the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations , the contractual creation of the legal personality of the EU (according to Article 47 TEU) has the consequence that this participation status since December 1, 2009 goes to the European Union. Since 1974 the European Commission has had a liaison office in New York. The Council Presidency, which changes every six months, has had a liaison office since 1994. Cooperation between the EC and the EU had to be coordinated between these two offices. In the course of the Lisbon Treaty, the liaison offices have been merged into an EU delegation.

In 2009 the EU proposed a resolution granting it the same rights of representation in the General Assembly as a full member, but without the right to vote. However, this move was rejected in 2010. After lengthy negotiations, a new resolution was passed in 2011 that expanded the EU's observer status in the General Assembly and gave it new rights. The resolution was adopted by 180 of the 192 UN member states without dissenting votes. Syria and Zimbabwe abstained and ten other states were not present for the vote.

Representing the interests of the EU at the United Nations

All EU states are independent members of the United Nations , some EU members are founding members of the United Nations. The Member States of the European Union have delegated the external representation of the EU, which was previously carried out by the representatives of the Member State holding the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union, to the following institutional representatives: the President of the European Council , the High Representative of the Union for Foreign and Security Policy , the European Commission and the Delegations of the European Union . João Vale de Almeida has been Head of the Delegation of the European Union (EU Ambassador) to the United Nations since November 2015 .

Head of the European Union Delegation to the United Nations

Head of the EU Delegation nationality Term of office
João Vale de Almeida PortugalPortugal Portugal November 2015 to date
Thomas Mayr-Harting AustriaAustria Austria October 2011 to October 2015
Pedro Serrano SpainSpain Spain January 2010 to October 2011
Fernando Valenzuela SpainSpain Spain 2004 to 2009

Representation in the General Assembly

Since the adoption of resolution A / RES / 65/276 on May 3, 2011, the EU has had extended observer status in the UN General Assembly, which grants it a number of privileges. It has the right to give opinions, is invited to take part in the general debate of the General Assembly, and can orally submit proposals and amendments that the member states of the European Union have agreed on. The representatives of the European Union, however, have "neither the right to vote nor the right to introduce resolutions or draft resolutions or to put forward candidates". Ordinary observers in the General Assembly, such as the Holy See or the Red Cross , have not yet been granted these privileges.

Representation in the Security Council

One EU member state is a permanent member of the Security Council: France . According to Art. 34 §2 of the Treaty on European Union, the latter undertakes to “fully inform the other Member States” and “to advocate for the positions and interests of the Union”.

Representation in other UN organizations and treaties

The EU is the only non-state actor to be a party to around 50 international UN treaties. She is also a full member of a variety of subsidiary bodies and specialized agencies of the United Nations, such as the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development , the United Nations Forest Forum, and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The EU has also been a full participant in a large number of international conferences, such as the Rio and Kyoto climate summits.

Voting behavior of the EU in the UN

The EU coordinates its voting behavior in the six main committees and other subsidiary organs of the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council of the UN and its commissions and other subordinate organs, including the specialized agencies and offices of the UN. In order to enable better coordination of voting behavior and joint decision-making, more than 1000 internal EU coordination meetings take place every year. The EU has also spoken with one voice at all major UN conferences since 1990.

The EU speaks as much as possible with one voice when voting in the General Assembly under the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). The voting behavior of the 28 EU members has become more and more standardized over the past 20 years. The proportion of votes on resolutions of the UN General Assembly in which the EU member states voted uniformly rose from 86% in the 46th General Assembly (1991/92) to 97% in the 53rd General Assembly (1998/99) and has remained since then stable at around this value. Even before the enlargements of the EU in 2004 and 2007, most of the candidate countries had already voted together with the EU states.

EU cohesion when voting in the General Assembly
year 91-92 92-93 93-94 94-95 95-96 96-97 97-98 98-99 99-00 00–01 01-02 02-03
EU cohesion 86% 91% 91% 92% 93% 96% 96% 97% 95% 96% 96% 97%
Overall UN cohesion 70% 69% 76% 74% 72% 70% 73% 75% 76% 76% 76% 78%

EU budget contribution

The EU is the largest contributor to the United Nations system. In 2007, the 27 EU member states contributed around 38.9% of the regular UN budget. The EU and its member states are by far the largest donors of official development aid with 55.6% of global development aid. The EU member states are also the largest contributors to UN peacekeeping operations with around 40.6% in 2007 and finance around half of the budgets from UN funds and programs. The European Commission alone pays more than US $ 1.35 billion for UN projects.

Important fields of cooperation

The most important areas of cooperation are peacekeeping and conflict prevention, human rights, development cooperation, sustainable development and the environment, humanitarian aid, terrorism and the fight against crime, trade and culture.

Future prospects

Representatives of regional blocs of the African, Arab and Caribbean states support the extended observer status of the EU. This text sets a precedent for them. They expressed their expectation that the Europeans would, in return, also support applications from the other regional blocs if they claimed similar rights for themselves.

Mark Malloch Brown , former Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, believes the EU will one day get a seat on the Security Council. He believes that development up to this point will be gradual.

Politically, however, this debate is very sensitive. Neither Britain nor France have shown any interest in relinquishing their permanent seat on the Security Council. In addition, Germany has long been making its efforts to have its own seat on the Security Council clear.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/29/ares29.htm
  2. ↑ http://www.un.org/en/development/devagenda/ldc.shtml
  3. ↑ http://www.euractiv.de/342/artikel/anderungen-im-verhaltnis-der-eu-zur-uno-004252
  4. ↑ a b EurActiv , May 4, 2011: EU strengthened as observer in UN General Assembly .
  5. ↑ http://www.un.org/depts/german/gv-65/band3/ar65276.pdf
  6. ↑ Short Biography (EU Delegation to the UN) ( Memento of the original from November 13, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / eu-un.europa.eu
  7. ↑ EU HR Ashton appoints new Head of EU Delegation in New York and 24 other Heads of EU Delegations ( Memento of the original from March 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , EU delegation to the UN (3 August 2011)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.eu-un.europa.eu
  8. ↑ Biography of Pedro Serrano, acting Head of the EU Delegation to the United Nations, New York ( Memento of May 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), EU delegation to the UN (February 2, 2010)
  9. ↑ Biography of Ambassador Valenzuela, Head of Delegation in New York (2004-2009) ( Memento of the original from June 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , EU delegation to the UN (April 1, 2005)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.eu-un.europa.eu
  10. ↑ a b c http://www.unric.org/html/german/pdf/Leporello_EU-VN_d.pdf
  11. ↑ a b The EU and how it works at the UN ( Memento of the original from 23 August 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 521 kB), EU Mission to the UN (engl.)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.eu-un.europa.eu
  12. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from March 31, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.eu-un.europa.eu
  13. ^ EUobserver , October 3, 2006: EU heading for single UN seat, UN official says .
  14. ^ Süddeutsche Zeitung , March 21, 2008: Berlin proposes reform of the UN Security Council .