Activities of Alexander Graf LAMBSDORFF related to 2008/2111(INI)
Reports (1)
REPORT Report with a proposal for a European Parliament recommendation to the Council on the EU priorities for the 63rd Session of the UN General Assembly PDF (193 KB) DOC (94 KB)
Amendments (25)
Amendment 4 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
Ea. whereas 2008 is a crucial year for the efforts to eradicate poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) worldwide by 2015, and whereas EU Member States should provide global leadership ahead of the relevant key meetings to be held in the second half of this year,
Amendment 5 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recital E b (new)
Recital E b (new)
Eb. whereas, with regard to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), EU efforts serve as an important catalyst and an example to other donors but will nevertheless still fall short, by EUR 75 billion, of the EU’s official development aid commitments by 2010,
Amendment 6 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recital E c (new)
Recital E c (new)
Ec. whereas in sub-Saharan Africa many countries are not on track to meet any of the MDGs, and whereas in many middle- income countries too there are regions and ethnic groups made up of millions of people who are making unsatisfactory progress towards meeting the targets,
Amendment 7 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recital E d (new)
Recital E d (new)
Ed. whereas soaring food prices and slowing global growth threaten to set back progress on the MDGs by an estimated 7 years unless further investment is made in the agricultural sector and the agro-food industry in developing countries,
Amendment 10 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas the UN Department for Peacekeeping Operations currently manages 1720 field operations involving over 100 000 troops, half of which are deployed in Africa,
Amendment 11 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recital G a (new)
Recital G a (new)
Ga. whereas the Court of First Instance of the European Communities and the Council of Europe have found that the UN system of terrorist blacklists, imposing targeted sanctions on certain persons and entities with a view to combating terrorism, infringes certain fundamental rights and constitutes a violation of fundamental freedoms,
Amendment 15 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Paragraph 1 – point a
Paragraph 1 – point a
(a) 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, with the active involvement of the European Parliament, and to be spelt out in a formal position of the Council,
Amendment 20 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Paragraph 1 – point c
Paragraph 1 – point c
(c) believes that the coordination of EU Member States’ positions within the United Nations should generally begin in the relevant working groups of the Council, thus making it easier for New York diplomats to achieve a common position on specific issues in the UN bodies and allowing more time for consultations and negotiations with other regional blocgroupings or countries belonging to such other blocgroupings,
Amendment 23 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Paragraph 1 – point d
Paragraph 1 – point d
(d) invites the Council and the Commission to consider, with a view to ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, a reorganisation of their offices in New York and Geneva which guarantees optimal coordination and synergy between Community policies, programmes and funds and the instruments and missions comprised in the Union’s Common Foreign and Security Policy,
Amendment 26 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Paragraph 1 – point e
Paragraph 1 – point e
(e) urges the Council and the Commission to study in depth the implications which the Treaty of Lisbon has for the Union’s future representation at the United Nations, and calls on EU Member States to commit themselves clearly and unequivocally to ensuring that the Union enjoys adequate visibility and authority within the UN bodies and fora,
Amendment 28 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Paragraph 1 – point f
Paragraph 1 – point f
(f) calls equally on Member States to seek a review of the current structure of geopolitical blocregional groupings within the United Nations in order to ensure that this reflects the membership of the European Union resulting from the last enlargement,
Amendment 51 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Paragraph 1 – point p a (new)
Paragraph 1 – point p a (new)
(pa) calls on the Council to sustain efforts aimed at increasing the accountability of UN member states in the field of human rights by increasing the efficiency of the Universal Peer Review, notably by tightening up procedures to avoid deliberate obstruction or diversionary tactics and ensuring that relevant NGOs have their say in the proceedings,
Amendment 58 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Paragraph 1 – point t
Paragraph 1 – point t
(t) takes the view that EU Member States should collectively support a strengthening of the role of the PBC in relation to UN agencies, funds and programmes andthe UN system, ensure that its recommendations are adequately taken into account inby the relevant governing bodies; is convinced that similar steps should be taken in order to establish closer linksUN bodies and advocate increased synergies between the PBC and UN agencies, funds and programmes; stresses the importance of closer cooperation between the PBC and international financial institutions actively involved in countries emerging from conflict,
Amendment 60 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Paragraph 1 – point u
Paragraph 1 – point u
(u) urges EU Member States in the Security Council to facilitate consultation of the PBC on the mandate of integrated peace-building operationreferral of new countries to the Peacebuilding Commission and on the mandate of integrated peace-building operations, in particular with a view to ensuring a smooth transition, in due course, from peacekeeping to peacebuilding; welcomes in this respect the fact that the Peacebuilding Support Office is associated with the integrated mission planning process,
Amendment 61 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Paragraph 1 – point v
Paragraph 1 – point v
(v) considers it essential that, besides improving coordination between actors, ensuring predictable financing and extending the international attention paid to post-conflict countries, the PBC should also address, in conjunction with the relevant UN departments, the need to improve the organisation’s learning capacity in the field of peacebuilding,
Amendment 79 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Paragraph 1 – point x
Paragraph 1 – point x
(x) calls onurges the Council to continue its effsupports to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and is, in this context, concerned by the scale of the current food crisis and the impact it could have on the achievement of the MDGs;he calls by President Barroso and Commissioner Louis Michel for Member States to draw up clear, binding national timetables and budgets to increase real aid in order to reach the promised caolls on the Council to ensure that the UN is granted the means necessary to tackle this crisisective target of 0.56% of gross national income in 2010 and 0.7% in 2015,
Amendment 82 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Paragraph 1 – point x a (new)
Paragraph 1 – point x a (new)
(xa) reminds Member States that no further new promises or new procedures are needed in order to achieve the MDGs, and that the focus must be on meeting the promises and pledges already made and scaling up the existing procedures,
Amendment 84 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Paragraph 1 – point x b (new)
Paragraph 1 – point x b (new)
(xb) notes the continued need for the crisis in human resources to be addressed if the three health MDGs are to be put back on track, and calls on the EU Member States to implement their Action Plan to address the critical shortage of health workers in developing countries and ensure that they make every effort to strengthen universal, integrated health systems which respond to local needs, in addition to their increased support of vertical initiatives targeting infectious diseases (MDG 6),
Amendment 86 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Paragraph 1 – point x c (new)
Paragraph 1 – point x c (new)
(xc) considers that gender equality (MDG 3) is an essential element in efforts to meet the MDG targets and recommends that EU Member States urgently address the global financing gap for the achievement of MDG 3; notes that, alongside education, the empowerment of women significantly contributes to the improvement of MDG 4 on child mortality and MDG 5 on maternal health, which are critical indicators of overall progress in development,
Amendment 88 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Paragraph 1 – point x d (new)
Paragraph 1 – point x d (new)
(xd) notes that, despite significant progress towards universal primary education in recent years, some 77 million children of primary school age were still not in school in 2007, the majority of them girls; therefore calls on the EU Member States to address the increased financial needs to support education, including in conflict-affected fragile states,
Amendment 89 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Paragraph 1 – point x e (new)
Paragraph 1 – point x e (new)
(xe) recommends that the Council and EU Member States renew discussions about debt relief at the UN level, with a view to redefining debt sustainability criteria in such a way as to promote the advancement of development goals rather than debt reimbursement,
Amendment 90 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Paragraph 1 – point x f (new)
Paragraph 1 – point x f (new)
(xf) recommends that the Council and the EU Member States encourage a UN-wide discussion on how to ensure that efforts and targets on climate change reinforce the attainment of the MDGs; and notes that much greater contributions to adaptation funds are required in order to ‘climate-proof’ development in the poorest countries,
Amendment 91 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Paragraph 1 – point -y a (new)
Paragraph 1 – point -y a (new)
(-ya) calls on the Council and particularly on those EU Member States which are permanent or non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council to advocate a revision of the UN sanctions system (terrorists’ blacklists) to bring it into line with the obligations of the United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (UNCCPR), in particular via the establishment of appropriate notification and appeal procedures,
Amendment 93 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Paragraph 1 – point -y b (new)
Paragraph 1 – point -y b (new)
(-yb) calls on the EU Member States to launch, within the UN and prior to the Review Conference, a debate on the challenges faced by the International Criminal Court which may undermine the Court’s effectiveness,
Amendment 99 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Paragraph 1 – point aa
Paragraph 1 – point aa
(aa) is concerned byabout the stalemate in disarmament-related talks and negotiations, particularly with regard to cluster bombs, depleted uraniumnegotiations on such issues as a fissile material cut-off treaty and a verification protocol for the biological weapons convention as well as a lack of movement in ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty; nevertheless recognises that the 63rd UN session offers the EU an excellent opportunity to show leadership in promoting ratification and universalisation of the recently agreed treaty banning cluster munitions, and the arms trade; urges the Council to bring these tin opening negotiations with a view to the conclusion of an International Arms Trade Treaty and an international treaty imposing a global ban on depleted uranium weapons; urges the EU, and also the UN, to make use of this year’s 40th anniversary of the Non-Proliferation Treaty to launch negotiations on a Nuclear Weapons Convention; calkls back onto the UN agendaon the EU and the UN to continue their efforts towards strengthening the UN Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons, and expanding the scope of the Ottawa Treaty banning landmines,