Czech Presidency successfully negotiates the UN strategy for sustainable development

Tisková zpráva Press Release Communiqué de presse

Czech Presidency successfully negotiates the UN strategy for sustainable development

Thanks to the efforts of the Czech negotiators, the meeting of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD 17), which took place from 4 to 15 May, resulted in another achievement of the Czech Presidency: all countries were in favour of the necessary resolution. The meeting identified global objectives for rural development, objectives relating to issues of land ownership, the fight against drought and desertification and to development in Africa; the negotiations resulted in a strategy of sustainable agriculture until 2017.
 
"The atmosphere of this year's political debate at the 17th meeting of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development was influenced by the current crisis of the global economy and the financial sector and by their impacts on agriculture, trading in foods and the position of developing countries", commented Czech Agriculture Minister Jakub Šebesta."That is why the meeting focused on finding ways out of the crisis while highlighting the importance of sustainable agriculture and the need to ensure that foods are produced and accessed, all the above in light of the current condition of ecosystems that suffer, above all, from insufficient water resources and land degradation."  
 
The primary task of the delegation of the Czech Republic as the presiding Members State of the EU Council was to coordinate a joint EU position and to hold negotiations on behalf of the EU regarding the political decisions of the CSD-17, bearing in mind that a conflict between developed countries as a block where the crisis originated and the developing countries as the primary victims of the crisis must be avoided and a generally acceptable compromise must be found to help push forward the implementation of the sustainable development goals. The inability to bridge these gaps shown at the previous meeting, when Germany was negotiating on behalf of the EU, led to the first failure of the UN Commission for sustainable development ever to adopt a final political document. "The most sensible point on the agenda was the willingness to continue the Doha Round,“ explains 1st Deputy Minister Ivo Hlaváč, "along with the issue of subsidies – the developing countries required a freeze on or a reduction of the subsidies with immediate effect. The EU now also tends to reduce subsidies; however, it cannot be foreseen which reductions will be made when, until the future budget framework is negotiated." According to Deputy Minister Hlaváč, bio-fuels, or rather the criteria for sustainable production of bio-fuels, was another hot issue. 
 
"We managed to negotiate and adopt this document unanimously. With this in mind, I want to appreciate the expert efforts and diplomatic skills of the Czech negotiators", Minister Šebesta emphasised after his return from the USA. The fact that a member of the newly-designated Czech Government travelled to New York and thus demonstrated that the Czech Presidency deems the global sustainable development agenda to be of paramount importance and that it does not restrict its focus to its "domestic" European agenda was praised by EU Member States. The meeting thus became the first major foreign presentation of the interim Czech government of experts.
 
From the EU's perspective, the most important points of the CSD-17 resolution include the following:

1. Sustainable production of bio-fuels and support for further international cooperation in this field within the efforts to eliminate negative effects on the environment (depletion of natural resources, including land and water resources) and on the role of agriculture as the basis for the production of foods in particular. To achieve this, the EU may use the approved sustainability criteria for bio-fuels adopted within the EU in 2008. In this area, EU has already gained support from Brazil, the USA and Canada, among others.
2. Prevention of the developing countries' efforts to push through the elimination of agricultural subsidies in developed countries; the developed countries promised to gradually reduce their subsidies for exports of agricultural products. A consensus was reached stating that only the treaties negotiated within the World Trade Organisation (WHO) will be relevant in this context.
3. Expression of a clear need for effective adaptation measures in agriculture in response to the negative effects of climate change.
4. Ensuring sustainable rural development with emphasis on the development of local and regional infrastructures, including job creation and an increase in the quality of rural life.
5. International support for sustainable development of agriculture in Africa in order to end poverty and hunger and to reduce migration of Africans to other parts of the world, in particular Europe. However, this goal will require the fulfilment of the existing commitments of the international community towards Africa, including commitments assumed by the EU (i.e. no less than a 50% share in the increase of foreign development aid by 2010), which should be also reflected in Czech foreign development aid and cooperation. 

  
Information on the course and results of the CSD-17 meeting will be presented at the next meetings of the EU General Affairs and External Relations Council, to the Agriculture and Fisheries Council on 25 and 26 May, and to the EU Environment Council. The Czech Government Commission for Sustainable Development will address the report on the CSD-17 conclusions on 23 June.

For further details click here 

Tereza Dvorácková
Spokeswoman of the Ministry of Agriculture