Guterres: 'The pandemic has revealed our shared fragility'

Addressing MEPs, UN Secretary-General António Guterres (pictured) thanked Europe for its leadership on vaccines, climate change and tackling violence against women, EU affairs.

Opening the session, President David Sassoli congratulated Guterres on his recent appointment to a second term as Secretary-General and welcomed his commitment “to strengthen multilateralism, reform the United Nations and continue to respond effectively to the challenges we face”.

Describing the EU-UN partnership as “more indispensable than ever”, Guterres thanked the Union for remaining the number one donor of humanitarian aid “in a global context of skyrocketing needs”. He welcomed the EU’s efforts to end violence against women and girls, its leadership on the digital transformation, as well as its commitment to protecting human rights and the rule of law worldwide.

“The pandemic has revealed our shared fragility and interconnectedness,” he said, urging countries “to use this crisis as a chance to pivot to a greener, fairer and more sustainable world”. The Secretary-General welcomed the EU’s drive for net-zero emissions by 2050 and said that the world looks towards the EU as “a powerful bridge builder in the run up to COP26”. He also called for “regular, safe and orderly pathways for migration”.

Noting that “vaccine equity is the greatest moral test of our time”, he commended the EU for its solidarity to the Covax facility and called for a global vaccination plan. He also appealed for “bold, daring steps” to tackle the “shocking inequalities between developing and developed countries”.

Find out more 

• Video of the address by UN Secretary-General António Guterres
• Press conference by David Sassoli and António Guterres
• Address by António Guterres to Parliament in 2017 
• Briefing: European involvement in the United Nations system

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