During second plenary debate of this year’s Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN) on the question of equitable representation and increase in the membership of the Security Council Member States had the chance to address the three most difficult issues of the process - such as categories of membership, regional representation and the question of veto -, where the elements of convergences emerged have not yet been consolidated into a concrete text.
In his intervention Mr. Zoltán Varga, Deputy Permanent Representative of Hungary reiterated the support for a simple and understandable enlargement model that could mean the Council’s expansion in both categories while not excluding the possibility of introducing an intermediary solution. Equitable geographical representation remains one of the key priorities for Hungary, thus we again called for a second non-permanent seat for the Eastern European Group.
On the veto, perhaps the most divisive issue, there was more convergence than divergence to be detected during the discussion. As a member of the ACT group Hungary supports the Code of Conduct to prevent or stop atrocity crimes as well as for the French-Mexican proposal on the voluntary restraint of veto power.
The second debate confirmed that overwhelming majority would like to see the process moving towards text-based negotiations as soon as possible, therefore Hungary together with many others welcomed the letter sent by the Permanent Representative of St. Vincent and Grenadines on behalf of the L69 group calling for the consolidation of member states positions. In general Hungary is open to support all efforts aiming at finding practical solutions to avoid ritually repeating the same IGN process every year.
Please find the statement made by Mr. Zoltán Varga, Deputy Permanent Representative here.
