Economic and Social Council

2007 Organizational Session

5^th Meeting (PM)

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL CONTINUES ORGANIZATIONAL SESSION

Unable to agree on proposals presented by its President on the themes for its fast-approaching 2007 substantive session, the Economic and Social Council this evening decided to reconvene tomorrow, following informal consultations among regional groups in the morning.

Stressing the need to be as efficient as possible, and the urgency of reaching an agreement in light of the “calendar and pressing nature” of the Economic and Social Council’s wider work, its President, Dalius Čekuolis (Lithuania), had proposed that the 2007 thematic debate would be devoted to “strengthening the global partnership for development, including to promote the eradication of poverty and hunger”; and that the theme for the Council’s annual ministerial review would be “strengthening efforts to eradicate poverty and hunger, including through sustained economic growth”.

In that connection, he stressed that the Council’s work this year would be a testing ground for new elements that had been introduced to strengthen its work by General Assembly resolution 61/16 –- including an annual ministerial review and a new Development Cooperation Forum -- pursuant to the outcome of the 2005 World Summit.

The Council initially agreed to the President’s proposals, but when he opened the floor for comments, representatives of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China, the European Union and the United States proposed minor changes to the language, and requested further time for negotiations.

Proposing to remove the word “including” from the ministerial review theme, the representative of Pakistan, speaking on behalf of the Group of 77, agreed that speed was of the essence, but said that all Member States needed time to fully reflect on the proposals.  The decision on the themes needed to have the widest possible ownership in the Council, which was extremely important for the substantive session this year.

The representative of Germany, on behalf of the European Union, said he would take the proposals to the group and would soon have a position.

The representative of the United States recommended the addition of the words “efforts within” to the proposal for the thematic debate.

The Council will meet again tomorrow at a time to be announced.

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For information media • not an official record