EU wants more multilateralism to tackle global challenges

On the International Day for Multilateralism, the European External Action Service (EEAS) called for a further strengthening of engagement with multilateral partners.

EEAS said that the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the many weaknesses of our world, but also revealed our greatest strength: cooperation. The EU sustains that without collective action, without solidarity, empathy and joint work, it would be impossible to tackle any global challenge.

The EEAS is the European Union’s diplomatic service. It is the agency tasked to carry out the Union’s Common Foreign and Security Policy.

“No one is safe alone, no one is strong alone; we are stronger together,” EEAS said. “The coronavirus pandemic reminds us how interconnected we are and how crucial multilateral cooperation is.”

The EEAS said that Multilateralism means working together to protect and promote peace, universal rights and freedoms, sustainable development, health, security and stability, and our environment. Working together to save lives is the real human face of multilateralism.

Collectively, the EU and its Member States are the single largest financial contributor to the UN system (aven after Brexit)

“The World Health Organisation plays a critical role in containing the spread of the virus. The European Union will continue to support this work, including financially,” Josep Borrell, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, said. “In 2019, the EU institutions alone provided 146 million euros in funding and we have already committed 114 million euros to the UN Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan led by the WHO for countries with weak health systems”.

In 2019, the EU Member States were also the largest contributor of the UN peacekeeping budget at 29.64%, meaning 1.7 billion euros.  

Moreover, the EU and the UN have a successful track record of close cooperation in crisis management around the world and 12 of the EU missions and operations are deployed in parallel with UN missions on the ground, in regular coordination, from the Sahel to Kosovo, from Somalia to Iraq.

Preventing crisis and overcoming crisis, upholding human rights, fundamental freedoms and the international humanitarian law, as well as recognizing and promoting the central role of women in peace and security are at the core of the EU-UN partnership also in the field.