Intergovernmental negotiations on Security Council reform quietly slipped into a new phase, with Member States commenting on the Chair’s new element paper on convergences concerning the first two main topics of Security Council reform. This brings the process one step closer to text based negotiations. In a first ever Polish-Hungarian Statement delivered by Ambassador Katalin Bogyay, the two countries suggested more elements, commented on the way forward and pushed for further meaningful discussions on all elements of Security Council reform.
The first ever convergence paper of the Chair, on the cooperation between the Council and the General Assembly, and on the size and working methods of the Council, has received better than expected response from Member States. Countries are ready to work on the basis of the paper and request similar convergence document on the remaining three topics.
In her statement delivered also on behalf of Poland, H.E. Amb. Katalin Bogyay, Permanent Representative of Hungary expressed support for the logic and structure of the Chair’s document that bring the negotiations to a new level of abstraction. Ambassador Bogyay requested further elements to be included and suggested that besides convergences a consolidated list of alternatives is also needed to tackle thornier issues.
There is now an emergence of division of labor in the text with three hypothetical baskets emerging: One for Charter amendments; and one for recommendations that the General Assembly should make in a form of a GA resolution. The third is for the list issues that the new Council will have to decide, or work on. This gives Member States a better drafting basis then working in silos, along the lines of the five key elements.
To read the full statement of the Ambassador, please click here.
