Brussels: Europe and the Arabs

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, along with 11 members of the Union's executive, is taking part in the second working group of its kind with the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, and other senior UN officials in Brussels. The meetings began on Thursday and continued today between the Commission and the United Nations to discuss the main challenges and priority areas for joint action, in particular the global consequences of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and other crises, food security and well-functioning supply chains, climate action, energy and biodiversity protection. , the all-time high humanitarian needs, the acceleration of the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the reform of the international financial architecture, and digital cooperation. It will provide an opportunity to identify practical actions to implement the UN Secretary-General's "Common Agenda" for a more effective and inclusive global governance, and to enhance cooperation in upholding and advancing human rights around the world.
The meeting is also an occasion to prepare for the upcoming high-level week of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, including the Sustainable Development Goals Summit.
  "Our institutions, the United Nations and the European Union, both transcend national borders and national interests. We believe in the need for consensus and international action. We believe in this need mainly also because it is so necessary to confront the great global challenges of our time. And indeed, The world is facing unprecedented challenges. We haven't even recovered from the effects of the pandemic when we have been exposed to the devastating consequences of Russia's aggression in Ukraine. There is of course the existential threat posed by climate change, but we are also seeing the economic and social upheavals of the digital revolution - just to name a few key issues. We both know that We can only address these matters through international cooperation, now more than ever. In other words, this means that the world needs the United Nations now more than ever. I would like to underscore the European Union's unwavering commitment to our strong partnership.
Thursday and Friday we have a busy schedule. I want to talk about four salient topics: the first of which is, of course, Ukraine. We will discuss our cooperation in support of Ukraine and also with those who have been indirectly affected by the Russian invasion. Here, the most important topic is, of course, grain exports from Ukraine to the world. We have our Solidarity Paths, and they are complemented by your Black Sea Grains initiative. Solidarity tracks made it possible to bring 45 million tons of grain and agricultural food products from Ukraine through the European Union to the rest of the world. Now, we are working closely, in tandem, to bring grain and other food items to those who need them most. And Secretary General, I would like to thank you for your tireless efforts to prolong the Black Sea Grain Initiative. The world needs it. Russia has a responsibility to prolong it. Otherwise, global food insecurity will be the result. Now the ball is in President Putin's court. And the world is watching.
Except for the Black Sea Grain Initiative, there is - in the context of the Russian war - one important topic, and that is the whole discussion about upholding the UN Charter and respecting international law. This goes to the core of who we are and what our organizations are built upon. We support President Zelensky's peace formula because it is strictly based on the principles of the UN Charter, and every word is taken from UN resolutions. So I look forward to discussing that with you, and how we can also build broad international support for it.
The second big topic we will discuss is climate change and our preparations for COP28. The European Union is at the forefront of the clean energy transition and energy saving. We want to keep our drive on climate ambition. And we want to encourage the world to do the same. This is why we propose setting global targets on renewables and energy efficiency. We'll discuss that tomorrow. This is in preparation for COP28. Of course, climate finance is critical to developing economies and emerging markets. The huge climate finance gap that we continue to see cannot be bridged solely through public finances. We need the private sector. Carbon pricing can also play an important role. These are all topics that we will discuss in depth tomorrow.
The third topic is global digital transformation and the growing power of artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is a revolution, and this revolution is having an enormous economic and social impact on our societies around the world. On the one hand, we need to harness their potential, without question, because it can increase prosperity and well-being. On the other hand, we also need to be very careful about the effects of AI, its downside if you look at information manipulation and foreign interventions, for example — all the effects that AI can have on our societies and social cohesion.
Last but not least, we'll look at how we can reinvigorate global efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. This is a big topic. The European Union is acting very concretely on this already, in particular through our investment programme, the Global Gateway. Here, our distinguishing feature is that our investment comes with high standards of openness and good governance. We believe these are critical conditions for progression to benefit the population at large and to be sustainable over time. Here too, we share an understanding that public sector funding needs to be complemented by private sector funding. So here too, we need to develop innovative tools and tools to enhance that. And we need to continue to address the growing debt vulnerabilities in developing countries.