Name: Committee on Development Ordinary meeting
Uploaded: 2026-10-01T09:34:30+00:00
Duration: 3663 s

00:00 - 00:56

Speaker 1

Okay, folks, let's go on to item six on our agenda. Let's go and start with item six. So, this is a debriefing by members of the delegation to the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development that traveled to New York in July. This was obviously a mission together with ENVI. We had nine members and six from our committee.

So, unfortunately, Pierfrancesco Majorino, ENVI chair, could not be here. So, and neither can Abir, who was the co-chair for DEVE. But Lukas is here, and Lukas Mandl is a member of the delegation and he's kindly agreed to give an overview of the mission. Lukas, please, you have the floor.

00:56 - 05:08

Speaker 2

Thank you very much, Chair. Thank you very much, Barry. Thanks to everybody joining our mission to New York on the occasion of the High-Level Political Forum. The mission report in writing is in the hands of the colleagues and it's full-fledged. And I thank the secretariat not only for accompanying the mission, preparing the mission, but also for the excellent work in the aftermath to have a good mission report and to one more time make clear how important the parliamentary endeavor of going there for the High-Level Political Forum, especially from the side of the European Parliament, is.

I even would claim that recent weeks with the General Assembly and everything around it shows obviously this system needs a parliamentary input. And this is what we have delivered in July again this year as in years before. And this is why this mission with all the details in writing that can be observed is clearly an outline for our motivation to go there again and to contribute to, in my view, if I may put it in my words, to a UN system that's desperately needed on our planet, maybe more than before, that will also be reformed. And I think in a very good multi-partisan, of course, multi-national approach, our delegation in New York has listened a lot to experts, to officials, but also shared a lot of views on possible reforms for the UN system. And the parliamentary approach is only one of these angles, but an important angle, I think.

I would recommend for the future not to leave anything out we had in the past, in last missions and also in the recent mission this year, but to broaden the scope a bit. There might be UN agencies which we have not yet encountered so much with, but which are also very important for our DEVE committee work and will be important for a proper UN reform. I also want to thank the Parliament's representation in New York that hosted us very well, that made a lot of opportunities happen for us formally and informally in order to use every minute for whom, for the Europeans we have the privilege to represent in order to have a leverage in this UN system, UN headquarters in New York.

And I can say even the encounter with the Secretary General of the UN this year was even more, I would say, broad and easier in terms of a positive chit-chat, not too formal, not too diplomatic, very clear, very frank, more than the years before. And this should also be an outline for future persons in that position, that listening to parliamentarians, I would say listening or encountering especially with members of the European Parliament will be of utmost importance. So I think this is not only worth it, but one of the main pillars of our Development Committee's work, because a world without a strong UN system is unimaginable, nothing that can be in any way appreciated. But a UN without reform will be in trouble, and that means the world would be even more in trouble. That's why contributing with our missions to the UN reform will be important.

Abir Al-Sahlani and Pierfrancesco Majorino served as the two co-chairs of the mission and also managed pretty well to have a multi-partisan and broad approach, and everybody could contribute positively to the whole thing. So thanks again. Looking forward to our future endeavors and to observe each and every part of the mission report, which is also content-wise meaningful for our committee work and for the files we will work on in the future. Thank you again.

05:08 - 06:21

Speaker 1

Thank you, Lukas. Great that you got to meet the Secretary General and also that, you know, the clear convening power of the UN. Whatever its weaknesses, people showed up at the GA. It was a huge world headlines for the whole week. So yeah, it's very weak, but we need to, we need it.

Anyway, let's hear from Udo briefly and then we'll come to... No, only short remarks. Congratulations, Lukas, to you and all the colleagues involved, the secretariat. I made experiences myself in former ongoings in New York. My only ask is that we continue to doing that, because it's exactly what makes us an international player, us as the European Parliament, us as the two committees.

And it's absolutely worthwhile, not only because it's eye-opening, not only to talk to the European colleagues, but to get a taste of the international global debate where you come back to Brussels with fresh ideas and fresh inspirations. So good luck for all the next rounds. Thank you, Udo. So we go to Tiago Moreira de Sá to make a few comments. Tiago, you have the floor.