EU to call for Security Council reform at UN General Assembly

High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell has announced the EU’s desire to join the UN Security Council reform.

Mr Borrell declared that the EU wants not only to preserve the UN and the multilateral system but also to modernise and strengthen the world order based on rules based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights values.

He noted that Russia, a nuclear power and permanent member of the UN Security Council, has trampled on the UN Charter with its war of aggression against Ukraine.

“This week comes at a crucial moment for the world and the multilateral system. With its war of aggression against Ukraine, Russia, a nuclear power and permanent member of the UN Security Council, trampled on the UN Charter. Despite repeated calls by the UN General Assembly to comply with its responsibility, Russia is preventing the Security Council from fulfilling its role in Ukraine and elsewhere, thus threatening the credibility of the whole United Nations system.”

Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy

According to Borrell, the Russian Federation is preventing the Security Council from fulfilling its role in Ukraine and elsewhere, thereby jeopardising the credibility of the entire UN system.

“In order to restore the unique legitimacy of the UN, it is urgent to make the Security Council more representative to reflect the changes that have taken place in the world, and in particular to give a voice to Africa,” the head of European diplomacy said.

Earlier, during her visit to the United States, German Foreign Minister Annalena Burbock called for “fundamental reforms” of the United Nations to reflect the current situation in the world.

Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has called for fundamental reforms at the United Nations as she arrives for the UN General Debate in New York. Germany is committed to “making the UN system fairer, more inclusive and more capable of acting”, the Green politician said in New York.

“A UN Security Council that still represents the 20th century world is out of date. Only if the United Nations gives itself an ‘update’ of its operating system to arrive in the world of the 21st century will it be the place where the world community solves its problems together in the long run.”

Annalena Baerbock, German FM, said in her statement

The UN Security Council consists of five permanent members – the United Kingdom, the United States, China, Russia and France – and ten non-permanent members elected for a two-year term.

The reforming of the body has become particularly acute given the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, which has veto power and can block any decisions that would hold it accountable for violating international law.

According to the Washington Post, the United States has begun to develop a proposal for reforming the UN Security Council, which would expand its membership to represent regions of the world better, but without the veto power.

US President Joe Biden announced his support for adding new permanent seats to the council, including seats for African and Latin American countries, at the UN General Assembly conference in September.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose country has contended that Russia improperly inherited its UN Security Council seat after the collapse of the Soviet Union, called for the United Nations to restrain Russia or be dissolved.

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