EU Statement – UN Peacebuilding Commission: Ambassadorial-level briefing on the Central African Republic

Monsieur le Président,

Nous tenons à vous remercier d'avoir organisé cette réunion importante, qui nous permet de réfléchir à la manière dont la Commission de consolidation de la paix et ses membres peuvent soutenir la République centrafricaine. Je salue la présence des autorités centrafricaines a la réunion aujourd'hui.

The EU is a long time partner in support of the CAR authorities' ambitions to foster peace and development. We have committed all our foreign policy tools in this regard: political and policy support, two security sector reform missions, mediation, and humanitarian and development assistance. Over the past ten years, the EU has mobilized more than 900 million EUR in support of CAR. The EU is a core member of the "Comité Exécutif de Suivi de l'APPR" (Accord Politique pour la Paix et la Réconciliation en RCA), whose last meeting was held in Bangui on 3 May. In this group, under the chairmanship of the CAR authorities, we work closely with the United Nations, the African Union and ECCAS, including on mobilizing resources to make a success of the peace process.

We welcome the focus of today's meeting on local elections. The APPR is very clear on the need for these elections, but also that they should be inclusive, credible and transparent. We have taken note of the current pledges and needs in terms of funding and call on all members of the international community to step up their support and deliver on their pledges, as well as to give their backing to efforts to arrive at a conducive political climate.

We are convinced of the benefits of these long overdue elections in deepening democracy and accelerating decentralisation. They represent an important opportunity also for youth and women. We have been engaged in close discussions with the government, MINUSCA and UNDP to identify the best manner to support the local electoral process and ensure that it takes into account the lessons learned from the previous elections.

The EU is currently finalizing a grant of 2 million EUR to the UNDP basket fund to help launch the updating of the voter registry, complemented with another 400.000 EUR in technical assistance to the electoral commission. We are also supporting the local civil society platform for election observation as well as the fight against disinformation and hate speech. Harassment and threats cannot be allowed to deter potential candidates, especially those from under-represented groups whose voice needs to be heard. We also call for additional efforts to reduce political tensions and encourage as broad as possible a range of candidates and programmes to be presented to the voters.

Finally, the Central African Republic may be one country that could benefit from the development of a national conflict prevention strategy. One of the deliverables that we hope to see from the Summit of the Future is a more systematic focus on national conflict prevention strategies, as called for in the Secretary General's New Agenda for Peace.

Thank you.