STATEMENT DELIVERED BY ITALY AT THE SIXTH SESSION OF THE INTERGOVERNMENTAL NEGOTIATIONS ON THE POST-2015 DEVELOPMENT AGENDA: ZERO DRAFT OF THE OUTCOME DOCUMENT FOR THE UN SUMMIT TO ADOPT THE POST-2015 DEVELOPMENT AGENDA (June 22, 2015)

We  fully align ourselves with the statement made on behalf of the EU and its member-states.

We wish to thank you, co-facilitators,  for your  work and tireless commitment and for the text you produced.

We are entering the final stretch of our long journey. Ambassador Kamau has reminded us, almost a year ago, during the concluding hours of the Open Working Group exercise, that “we have been running a marathon” and that the last miles are the toughest and longest of all. We see this coming again and please rest assured of our support during this last stretch.

We feel the responsibility to respond to the international community’s call for a shift in the paradigm of development, the scope and breadth of which was set out in the declaration The Future We Want (Rio+20). We are, nonetheless, confronting ourselves, as you clearly stated in the zero draft, with an extremely complex and interrelated framework “of unprecedented scope and nature”. We, therefore, need to ensure that our final output (the post 2015 agenda) captures and reflects the transformational nature and innovative features needed to address such complexity.

The document you presented us is a good first step in that direction. We believe it is a good basis to work on and wish to add a few general comments on the draft Political Declaration on our national capacity.

First and foremost, the political declaration should set out the change of approach necessary to tackle the challenges ahead of us. The overarching objective of eradicating poverty requires the adoption of a different, more complex and integrated approach that builds on the principles of sustainability. We need to ensure that the outcome document reflects a vision (notably in paragraph 3), in which the development patterns we are promoting are truly sustainable and the benefits they will provide reach all.

Part of this integrated approach is also represented by Peace, Human Rights, Rule of Law, Access to Justice and transparent and participatory Institutions. We think these fundamental components of the post-2015 framework should be spelled out as they deserve in the text.

We also need to address throughout the text, in a balanced and integrated manner, the three dimensions of sustainable development and further work might be needed on the zero draft to strengthen the environmental pillar.

In tackling and strengthening the environmental pillar, we should not enter in an exercise of adding references here and there but rather try to mainstream environmental issues throughout the declaration. In the vision, we need to reestablish the proper relationship between humanity and the planet Earth. Our wellbeing and that of future generations depends on the wellbeing of the planet surrounding us, including its species. We cannot split the two things as they are part of the same picture.

The wellbeing of our planet, or, since Amb. Kamau cited the recently released encyclical, as Pope Francis refers to it “our common house” and of the people living in it,  is the responsibility of all. This leads to my second point: the universal nature of the agenda and the paradigm shift it implies. The declaration needs to better reflect the concept of universality, the transformative value  of the SDGs and the shared responsibilities that should accompany it, including through the idea of a new global partnership, built on a collective vision and that calls for the mobilization of all actors at all levels.

Finally we would like to join others on the issue of singling out only CBDR among the Rio Principles. We believe that the Principles set out in the Rio Declaration are all of equal importance in tackling environmental issues. Principle 7, in particular,  was designed in the context of global environmental degradation and should be considered only in that context.

A final word also on the essential role of national Parliaments in providing the ownership of the SDGs at the nationallevel and, more in general, in stimulating and monitoring the implementation of the new agenda. This special role mus be recognised for the reasons that, before me, the distinguished Delegate from Vietnamhas very well explained.

Co-facilitators, we appreciate your leadership and commitment to this process. We are ready to continue to do our best and to be constructive and supportive in the last few meetings left before the September Summit.

Thank you.