At
UN,
As EU Uses Special Rights, Caricom Calls It Abuse, Qatar on Tap
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 17 -- Six weeks after the European
Union won special
rights in the UN General Assembly after months of opposition led by
the Caribbean states group CARICOM, the struggle continued at the
tail end of a General Assembly debate on the Millennium Summit.
After
GA President
Joseph Deiss allowed the European Union to speak, Deiss tried to end
the meeting. But the Ambassador of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Camillo Gonsalves asked to take the floor.
He said, on
behalf of
Caricom, that the EU should not have been allowed to speak in the
Explanation After the Vote section, since as a non member state, the
EU had no vote.
Deiss
said he
“took note” of the statement, then again tried to end the
meeting. The representative of Venezuela tapped her formica country
name plate on her desk until Deiss begrudgingly gave her the floor.
After she
said that Venezuela for the record supported CARICOM's
objection, Deiss called hers a “declaration after a declaration,”
and gaveled the meeting closed.
Afterward,
Inner
City Press asked Ambassador Gonsalves to explain. “There were to
be no general statements,” he said. “The EU was inscribed to
speak after the vote. A special provision was created by the chair
for the EU, who didn't ask if anyone else wanted to speak in that
way. As soon as the EU spoke, he shut it down.”
Ban Ki-moon & Ashton: "When Cathy met Ban Ki," 1
wants special rights, the other a 2d term
An
EU member's
Permanent Representative argued to Inner City Press that while St.
Vincent should then have been allowed to make a general statement, if
the EU did, there was nothing wrong with letting the EU make a
general statement. But only the EU? When member states weren't
allowed? This is why they were and are called special rights. Will
the incoming President of the General Assembly, the Ambassador of
Qatar who is to be elected on June 22, be so accommodating to the
European Union? Watch this site.
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