Tal
Paris, UNESCOS generalkonferens 8 oktober 2009
Tobias Krantz, Högskole- och forskningsminister

Tal på engelska av Tobias Krantz, EU-Joint Statement at UNESCO Gen. Conference 35th Session 8 October 2009 - General Policy Debate

Mr. President of the General Conference, Excellencies, Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen.

I am very pleased to be here.

The first part of the speech is on behalf of the European Union - which consists of 27 countries - and the candidate countries Turkey, Croatia and Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and in the second part I will speak on behalf of Sweden.

*

The European Union would like to thank Mr. Matsuura for his long term commitment and dedication to UNESCO. Mr. Matsuura has worked hard to reform the Organization to make it more efficient and transparent.

The European Union warmly congratulates Madame Bokova on her nomination as the new Director General, and is looking forward to working with her. We are particularly glad that we for the first time have a woman nominated for this position.

*

The world is facing many challenges. The major ones are economic recovery and Climate Change. In troubled times like these it is easy to focus on short time solutions, but I want to stress the importance of keeping the long term perspective in mind and invest in education and research. After all today's investments in education and research are tomorrow's welfare. That is one of the reasons why a strong UNESCO is needed.

*
Mr. President,

The world has changed dramatically since the foundation of UNESCO. The European Union therefore welcomes the proposal by the 182nd Executive Board meeting regarding a comprehensive external evaluation. We believe that it is time to initiate such a thorough evaluation focusing on the core role of UNESCO, assessing its relevance and proposing necessary changes. It should review the five functions of UNESCO: to serve as a clearing house, capacity builder, laboratory of ideas, standard setter and catalyst for international cooperation. Such an evaluation is decisive for the future and will benefit all Member States of this Organization.

In order to ensure fundamental values such as peace, democracy, human rights and sustainable development, the European Union firmly believes in a strong and vital multilateral system and we will continue to support the One UN reform and we encourage UNESCO to continue its work within the One UN pilot countries.

UNESCO needs to become more efficient and results driven. It needs to set clear priorities and concentrate on its core tasks - only then can we maximize results. It is also important to improve UNESCO's performance at country level, in particular as part of the One UN.

*

The EU recommends the General Conference to approve a budget ceiling of 653 million USD for the next two years. However, the cost for central administration is still too high and further work is needed in order to transfer resources from administration to normative work and program activities. We welcome the clear recommendation to the Director-General in the draft budget proposal by the Executive Board to pursue efforts in this direction in the future.

We would welcome the introduction of a mechanism of constant reduction of central administrative costs.
*

Mr. President,

UNESCO has a unique role to defend freedom of expression and press freedom. Such freedoms are a prerequisite for peace and development. UNESCO needs to further strengthen its work in this field.
*

In the area of education several UNESCO conferences have left us with strong messages of wide scale educational needs for high quality education on all levels and for all age groups, from pre school to Higher Education, including vocational education. The international community have on several occasions committed itself to deliver primary education and literacy for all. Although progress have been made we need to accelerate the efforts to ensure literacy for all, and free, and compulsory primary education of good quality by 2015 as envisaged in the Millennium Development Goals. The clock is ticking and it is ticking fast. If we seriously wish to live up to our commitment there is no time to waste or otherwise we risk failing legitimate expectations.

*
Mr. President,

Climate change is one of the largest challenges to mankind and UNESCO's work in this field is of great importance. We would like to underline the Man and the Biosphere Programme as one of the corner-stones of this work.

Efforts to reinforce education for sustainable development are of utmost importance in order to create the awareness needed. This is why the Decade for Education for Sustainable Development, for which UNESCO is the lead agency, is so important.

The link between science and education is crucial for Education for Sustainable Development. This is also an area where UNESCO has a special role to play and we hope to see even more activities in this field.

*

Mr. President,

The EU fully supports UNESCO's overarching priorities - Africa and gender. Gender equality is at the heart of economic and social progress and essential to sound development practice. It is a critical component to eradicate poverty, enhance economic growth and democratic governance, and achieve sustainable development. We would like to see a gender perspective in expected results' in all UNESCO's programs. Gender perspective naturally includes men and women, boys and girls.

The European Union welcomes the Executive Board's decision that the UNESCO Institute of Statistics should work more actively in generating gender disaggregated data whenever possible. This is crucial for our ability to make fact based decisions that best promote development for all.

*

We live in a globalized world and the cultural dimension is more important than ever. This dimension crosses all policy areas and is a vital aspect in cooperation for development. Culture and dialogue has to remain at the centre of UNESCO's work.

We welcome the fact that 100 countries have ratified the 2005 Convention on the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions, and the fact that its implementation has made great progress in the past year.

*

Finally, I would like to underscore the fact that EU is based on the same fundamental values as UNESCO. We need to work closely together in order to further fundamental freedoms and the right to knowledge all over the world.

Thank you for your attention.