President, Excellencies, distinguished colleagues,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.

The Candidate Countries North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Georgia, as well as Armenia align themselves with this statement.

First, we would like to congratulate the President of ECOSOC for making this year’s Partnership Forum truly inclusive and interactive through a Plenary, four thematic SDG Action segments, a multi-stakeholder panel and numerous Side events - all with the goal of scaling up concrete and innovative partnership to turbocharge SDG implementation, in line with Action 55 of the Pact for the Future. 

ECOSOC, as the “house of the people”, is the perfect place to implement the Pact’s commitment by fostering partnerships among Member States, youth, civil society, private sector, academia, and national parliaments, local and regional authorities as well as international, regional, subregional and other institutions. It is essential that we increasingly use ECOSOC to inform and empower these actors collectively in the next five years to bridge the gap in achieving the SDGs and to deliver to those most vulnerable and to those in need.

By building strong, collaborative partnerships, ECOSOC can help translate the Pact for the Future but also the outcomes of the forthcoming high-level conferences - some of which will be hosted by EU member states: the UN Oceans Conference (UNOC) in Nice and the FFD4 conference in Sevilla but also the Second World Summit for Social Development in Qatar - into tangible actions at the local, national, regional and global levels.

Secondly, the EU recognises the importance of forging partnerships by creating links, not dependencies.

This is why we launched the Global Gateway and as a key contribution to putting the SDGs back on track. It is our strategy to mobilise sustainable public and private investments to boost smart, clean and secure links in digital, AI, energy and transport sectors and to strengthen health, education and research systems across the world. Strengthening each other by connecting each other.

In order to highlight that partnerships are critical to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, the EU proposed in the Second Committee a Resolution "Towards Global Partnerships" that was adopted by consensus at the GA in December 2025.

Finally, this year we are engaging in the revitalisation of the Commission on the Status of Women but at the same time, we should already start preparing for the upcoming Review of the ECOSOC and the High-Level Political Forum, mandated for the 80th General Assembly session. The review provides us with the opportunity to strengthen ECOSOC and HLPF’s role as a partnership and, very importantly for the success of multilateralism, as an accountability platform. Reviewing deeply the ECOSOC’s functioning and output to this end is key.

This will contribute to make the multilateral system, with the UN at its core, more effective and inclusive, an objective to which the EU and its Member States remain very committed, particularly in the current geopolitical context.