The United Nations need a new narrative for multilateralism – and the EU has a key role to create it – says Dr. Georgios Kostakos, Executive Director of the Foundation for Global Governance and Sustainability (FOGGS). On a Prospex Institute event on 13th of September 2019, the former advisor to UN Secretaries General Kofi Annan and Ban Ki Moon presented on current challenges faced by multilateralism: leading States favouring national-level policies whereas global challenges such as climate change are requesting further cooperation. Georgios Kostakos highlighted the need for the EU to help foster a new narrative based on cooperation with other international institutions, putting citizens at the center of multilateral decisions.
The discussion focussed on the the future of the UN and their role in empowering citizens and civil society to have their say on global challenges – involving the European Union. Questions about the new European Commission and European Parliament highlighted the crucial importance of the next five years in defining the future of the European Union, and by extension, the role it will play for a multilateral global governance on the international stage. The need for a new narrative for globalisation and multilateralism was seen to go along with a need to re-define the European Integration narrative as a way to trigger further engagement with citizens and allow for more bottom-up dialogue with international institutions as a way to improve legitimacy.
About the Speaker: Dr. Georgios Kostakos was involved in the preparation of the 2005 World Summit as a member of the Executive Office of former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Moreover, he held the position of Acting Deputy Executive Secretary on the High-level Panel on Global Sustainability put forward by former UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, whom he also supported as advisor to the Secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Changes including on the occasion of the COP21 and the resulting Paris agreement. Georgios Kostakos is Executive Director of the Foundation for Global Governance and Sustainability (FOGGS).