Brussels, 16/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - In coming weeks, the EU is to present a draft resolution to the United Nations General Assembly calling for specific rights to be granted to its representatives at meetings of the UN General Assembly, its committees and working groups as well as at UN-organised international conferences. This approach, which has been approved by Coreper, is a direct consequence of the reorganisation of EU external representation since entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. Hitherto, the 27 EU member states were represented at the UN General Assembly by the country holding the rotating European Union presidency. With ongoing implementation of the new treaty (conferring upon the EU its own legal personality) and the creation of the European External Action Service (EEAS), EU external representation, including in international organisations such as the UN, now comes under the responsibility of “European” representatives: the permanent president of the European Council (at the level of heads of state and government), the high representative for foreign affairs (at ministerial level), the European Commission and EU delegations in the world. At the key seats of international organisations, such as New York or Geneva, it will mainly be the delegations that shoulder most of the daily work carried out hitherto by diplomats of the rotating EU presidency. If the United Nations consents to the European request, it will in future be the EU representatives - at the highest level Herman Van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton - that will be entitled to take the floor at the General Assembly in order to make proposals, submit amendments or diffuse documents. They would normally not have these rights as the EU is only an observer at the UN. The aim is therefore to ensure that EU representation and participation in the work of the General Assembly is at least as effective and efficient as before, when it came under the rotating EU presidencies, the diplomats say. They are optimistic about the fact that the resolution may be approved by the General Assembly in September. On the other hand, the EU's observer status is not to be modified.
In the United Kingdom, where David Cameron's government has undertaken to transfer no more authority to the EU, one is already seeking to play down the impact of this line of approach. In a memo of 14 July (cited in the press), addressed to British MPs, the British secretary of state for European affairs, David Lidington, gives his assurance that “the granting of such rights to the EU will not affect the UK's position as a member of the UNGA or the UN Security Council”. (H.B./transl.jl)