Council Briefing on ‘New Challenges to International Peace and Security’
On Wednesday (23 November), the Council will hold a high-level briefing on a number of inter-related issues constituting ‘New Challenges to International Peace and Security’. (This will be the first time that the Council will address these ‘new challenges’ together rather than as separate issues.)
Portugal’s Foreign Minister, Paulo Portas, will chair the meeting at which the Council will be briefed by Yuri Fedotov, the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC); António Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); and Margaret Chan, the Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO). Ministerial-level participation of other EU Council members is also possible.
Following the briefing, Council members are likely to address some of the issues categorised as ‘new challenges’, including possible linkages between them. (The issues that have been suggested as coming under this broad category of challenges include HIV/AIDS, climate change and the dangers of transnational organised crime.) However, there seem to be divergent views in the Council on the most appropriate way of addressing these issues, including whether they should be categorised together, and on the connections between them. It seems that consideration had been given to a draft presidential statement, which would have been issued following the briefing, although it appears that an outcome document is now unlikely.
