ACTIVITIES OF SECRETARY-GENERAL IN BELGIUM, 28-30 JANUARY
Secretary-General Kofi Annan travelled to Brussels from Paris in the morning of Wednesday, 28 January.
At midday he met briefly, one-on-one, with European Commission President Romano Prodi. He then sat down with members of the European Union’s College of Commissioners for an exchange of more than an hour that touched on the Union’s relations with the United Nations, United Nations reform, the Doha round of trade negotiations, the fight against HIV/AIDS and a number of European issues.
Continuing over a working lunch, they discussed migration, which would be the subject of a major speech that the Secretary-General was to give the following day. Other issues discussed were Cyprus, Iraq, the Middle East, Iran, Afghanistan and other conflict zones.
Afterwards, he and Mr. Prodi spoke to the press.
Later in the day, the Secretary-General met with Irish Foreign Minister, Brian Cowen, as Ireland was then President of the European Union, after which they too met with the press.
This was followed by a meeting with Javier Solana, the European Union High Representative for Common and Security Policy. They assessed efforts to get Greek and Turkish Cypriots back to the negotiating table before Cyprus was scheduled to accede to the European Union on 1 May. They also touched on Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Middle East.
On Wednesday evening, he attended a reception hosted by Foreign Minister Cowen, followed by a dinner hosted in his honour by Chris Patten, Commissioner of the European Union.
On the same day, Mrs. Nane Annan attended a working luncheon with female Members of the European Parliament. In the afternoon she met with 30 young people engaged in a project titled “What do you think?”, coordinated by the Belgian Committee for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The young people spoke with Mrs. Annan about national and global issues of concern to them, including HIV/AIDS, child trafficking, disabled children and the environment.
Mrs. Annan commended the group on their engagement, saying it was unique in any age group. “You are truly advocating for a ‘we-generation’ –- that we all have to come together to protect this world of ours”, she said.
“You are opening the door to adults so that we can have a dialogue with you on important issues facing children worldwide and I believe you have tremendous power. You are asking for more participation for young people, yet, at the same time you are showing us a way forward by your engagement, with political leaders and young people.”
“You are asking for more information”, she continued, “but probably you can be trailblazers here too, as you have access to technologies that enable you to communicate across the world with each other. You are and can be real agents of change”.
Mrs. Annan also gave her perspective on three issues that she has focused on since her husband became Secretary-General: girls’ education, water, and the fight against HIV/AIDS.
On Thursday morning, the Secretary-General and Mrs. Annan went to the European Parliament where they were greeted by President Pat Cox as well as by school children.
The Secretary-General then had an exchange with members of the Parliament’s Committee for Foreign Affairs, taking a number of questions from them on United Nations/European Union relations, Iraq, Afghanistan, Cyprus, United Nations reform and the fight against HIV/AIDS.
After that, he sat down with Mr. Cox, with whom he discussed primarily Iraq and Cyprus.
On his way to the plenary hall of the Parliament, the Secretary-General met with relatives of United Nations staff members killed or injured in Baghdad on 19 August 2003, and a survivor, Professor Gil Loescher, not a United Nations staff member, who had been in Sergio Vieira de Mello’s office at the time of the blast.
He then proceeded to the Parliament chamber, where President Cox presented the Andrei Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to the United Nations, in memory of those United Nations staff members who had lost their lives in the service of peace. The Secretary-General accepted the prize, on their behalf, saying he was deeply touched that among those honoured was his friend and colleague, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and other United Nations staff killed in the line of duty. Vieira de Mello’s widow and one of his sons were in the audience as were other relatives of those killed in Baghdad. The victims of the Baghdad bombing, he said, were free spirits and free thinkers, as well as soldiers of humanity and peace.
He then spoke on the subject of migration saying, “The message is clear. Migrants need Europe. But Europe also needs migrants”.
In a speech that was interrupted by applause some 20 times, he said that “A closed Europe would be a meaner, poorer, weaker, older Europe”. While an open Europe would be “a fairer, richer, stronger, younger Europe -– provided you managed migration well”.
“Migrants are part of the solution”, he said, “not part of the problem. They should not be made the scapegoats for a vast array of social ills”.
“If Sergio Vieira de Mello were with us today –- and, indeed, if Andrei Sakharov were too -– they would say to you what I say to you.” “The people who move across borders today, in search of a better life for themselves and their families, are our brothers –- and our sisters too. Let us treat them that way”, he concluded. (See Press Release SG/SM/9134.)
He was then joined by President Cox and other European Union officials at a press conference at which he took questions on migration, religious tolerance, Cyprus, an international tax to relieve poverty, and that day’s terrorist bombing in Jerusalem, among other issues.
After the press conference, he was given a tour of an exhibition linked to the Sakharov Prize. Among the former prize winners in attendance were Ibrahim Rugova, the Kosovar independence leader, and Xanana Gusmao, the first and current President of Timor-Leste.
He then had lunch with European Parliament party group leaders, hosted by President Cox.
After lunch he began an official visit to Belgium with an audience with His Majesty King Albert II.
He then met with Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel for talks that focused largely on Central Africa. They discussed Belgium’s bilateral assistance to the Democratic Republic of the Congo for the training of the army. They also discussed the peace process in Burundi and the Secretary-General expressed his satisfaction at the return of European troop contributors to United Nations peacekeeping missions in Africa, particularly troops from Canada, France, Ireland, Netherlands and Sweden. Their talks also touched on the conflict areas of Afghanistan, the Middle East, Iraq, and Cyprus. In response to the Secretary-General’s appeal for financial support for his high-level panel on change, the Foreign Minister was pleased to announce a Belgian contribution of 250,000 Euros.
On Thursday evening, he met with H.E. Tassos Papadopoulos of Cyprus to explore the possibility of resuming talks with the Turkish Cypriots.
He later joined, for about an hour, a gathering of over 50 United Nations and agency staff working in Belgium, chatting personally with many of them.
In a separate programme, Nane Annan and Her Majesty Queen Paola of Belgium visited Child Focus, a non-governmental organization dedicated to solving individual cases of child abduction and sexual exploitation, as well as to combating child pornography, prostitution and trafficking of children across borders.
In the afternoon, Mrs. Annan and HRH Princess Mathilde met two adolescents from the “What do you think?” project, coordinated by UNICEF Belgium, to discuss the outcome of their meeting with Mrs. Annan the previous day. Benjamin Ombole and Inge Schroijen briefed Princess Mathilde on local and global issues of concern to Belgian young people, including HIV/AIDS, child trafficking, education, health care and the environment.
The Secretary-General continued his official visit to Belgium on Friday with a meeting with Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and a dozen senior members of his Government, including Foreign Minister Louis Michel. In the hour-long meeting, they discussed the situation in Iraq; the Secretary-General made a strong pitch for troop contributions to peacekeeping operations; and they had a detailed overview of the subject of United Nations reform.
He then visited the newly-established European Regional UN Information Centre (RUNIC) in Brussels, which replaces nine national information centres that were closed down at the end of 2003.
“This inauguration puts Europe in the vanguard of major reforms of UN information services”, he said, “which aims to use our limited resources more effectively by having regional centres, well-staffed, well-equipped, instead of spreading those resources too thinly between separate national centres of the Member States. Europe will be the testing ground for this new system”.
He thanked the Belgian Government for having so generously provided the premises for the new RUNIC free of charge. (See Press Release SG/SM/9136.)
At a press encounter afterwards, the Secretary-General was first asked about Cyprus. He said he had had a good meeting last night with H.E. Tassos Papadopoulos of Cyprus, who indicated his determination to proceed with renewed talks with the Turkish Cypriots. The Secretary-General said he had not yet heard from the Turkish Cypriots, but he had spoken last night with US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who said that the United States would be supportive of the process.
Asked about Iraq, the Secretary-General said, in French, that progress was being made. The Coalition Provisional Authority had assured him it would do the maximum to protect his fact-finding team. Therefore, he said, he expected to send that team to Iraq in the next few days.
The Secretary-General then went to the residence of the Prime Minister, where he received an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Ghent. The degree had originally been offered in March 2003, but the crisis in Iraq prevented the Secretary-General from traveling to Belgium at that time. (See Press Release SG/SM/9137.)
He then had a working lunch with the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister and senior members of their staffs. They discussed in detail the prospects for resumed talks on Cyprus, given the 1 May deadline for Cyprus’ accession to the European Union. They reviewed Belgium’s efforts to assist the Democratic Republic of the Congo in its period of transition as well as the peace process in neighbouring Burundi.
That day in Brussels, Mrs. Annan visited the European Schoolnet office where she was shown a range of web-based initiatives for teachers and pupils to share resources, ideas and cultures. The visit was a follow-up to the Geneva World Summit on the Information Society in December 2003, when Mrs. Annan helped launch a Global Schoolnet Alliance, supported by the United Nations Cyberschoolbus.
After lunch, the Secretary-General and his party flew to Geneva, where he was to meet with Presidents Luis Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, Ricardo Lagos Escobar of Chile and Jacques Chirac of France to discuss a fresh initiative to combat global hunger and poverty.