EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy will now be able to address the United Nations no differently from US President Barack Obama, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez or Russia’s Dimitri Medvedev.
LEIGH PHILLIPS|EUOBSERVER
In order to win the vote, the EU had to agree to changes to the global organisation that transforms the UN from an assembly of nation states into a body that also offers representation rights to regional blocs as well, including potentially the African Union, the Arab League and the South American Union.
The EU on Tuesday was given almost all the rights in the global chamber that fully-fledged states enjoy after the General Assembly backed 180 to two a resolution giving the bloc, which until this week only maintained observer status at the UN, the union the right to speak, the right to make proposals and submit amendments, the right of reply, the right to raise points of order and the right to circulate documents.
There will also be additional seats put in the chamber for the EU’s foreign policy chief, High Representative Catherine Ashton and her officials.
Ashton and her team have lobbied heavily over the last six months, according to her representatives, with a major offensive in the last 48 hours by the high representative herself in New York, to push through the changes after the EU was dealt a surprise defeat last September when other regional blocs voted against a similar resolution.
She declared herself "delighted" at the win, which, she said: "will in future enable EU representatives to present and promote the EU’s positions in the UN."
Full article read on: http://euobserver.com/9/32262
