Intervention by Ambassador Katalin Bogyay at the "Inter-governmental negotiations on the question of equitable representation on and increase in the membership of the Security Council and related matters" held in New York, on 11 February 2015.
Mr. Chairman,
Since this is the first time I am taking the floor let me congratulate you on your assumption of this prestigious post and pledge the Support of Hungary throughout the process.
We hope to enter into a new phase of negotiations and find common solutions.
Einstein is always an inspiring start: "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."
We believe in dialogue, we are open to creative ideas that could achieve a good outcome. But lack of agreement can no longer be used as justification for repeating what has been done in the last six years.
My mission’s proposal is the following:
Let us create an outcome-driven approach and a step-by-step process. The outcome of the IGN should be a document, a report, or a draft GA resolution.
From the legal perspective, we clearly need an amendment of the Charter to achieve Security Council reform. The IGN may also want to put forward proposals on the five key elements that do not need Charter Amendment, including, but not limited to, working methods.
We think that a draft text that contains the proposed Charter amendments and other proposals is what we need to enter text-based negotiations as proposed by countries and, for the first time last November, by the President of the General Assembly.
On the step-by-step process, first, we need a proposal on our calendar of meetings. We suggest at least one meeting every month until June.
We also need a work program, which is driven by the structure of the outcome document:
• We can quickly come up with the indicative list of the Articles of the Charter to be amended. Next step would be to produce language proposals on those Articles that incorporate the various ideas. This could become the basis for substantive negotiations.
• By identifying the main themes first, we can start working on the proposals on the five elements that do not need Charter Amendment. This will also need a draft text.
• Then can we narrow down differences and reduce the number of outstanding issues.
Mr Chairman, we also propose a change in our rigid rules of engagement. The Chair must have the responsibility to lead us with his proposals, be it on calendar of meetings, on work program, and on draft texts. This does not take away the Member State driven nature of the process. We can decide on a working method that gives Member States the opportunity to convey to the chair their textual proposals for compilation. It also remains our responsibility to accept or modify the draft proposals and decide on the outcome. Mr. Chairman, As I said we are open to real dialogue. But we cannot continue “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
