EU membership of the UN Security Council
At the 44th Christian Europe Day of the Pan-European Union Germany, which took place on 24/25 October 2015 in Andechs Monastery, President Bernd Posselt called for the EU to be accepted as a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
He also called for the veto right of the founding states to at least be weakened if genocide and expulsion were imminent.
In order to achieve such a reform of the world organisation, the EU must ally itself with the major emerging and developing countries, which are also seeking a permanent seat on the Security Council.
Posselt warned against ideological polarisation ‘in the UN's specialist organisations, which are useful in themselves, and which must be brought back to their objective core.’ It is not the task of the World Health Organisation to propagate the legalisation of cannabis, nor is it the purpose of world population programmes to advocate the liberalisation of abortion.
In his presentation on Pan-Europe and the League of Nations, the international and German Pan-European Vice-President Dirk H. Voß emphasised that war is not the father but the end of all things - a failure of politics.
Prof. Sven Gareis, Vice Dean of the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, relentlessly described the weaknesses of the current UN structure, but also praised its ‘qualities as an actor’ in peacekeeping, human rights protection and global climate policy.
Klaus Prömpers, long-time ZDF correspondent at the United Nations headquarters in New York, described its working methods from the perspective of a practitioner.
The Integration Commissioner of the Bavarian State Government, Martin Neumeyer MdL, called on the EU and federal authorities to take planned action in the current largest wave of refugees and displacement since the Second World War, as otherwise the trust of citizens in politicians would be jeopardised.
The cellarer of the Andechs Benedictines, Father Valentin Ziegler, welcomed the almost 200 participants of Europe Day with a spiritual greeting on Bavaria's Holy Mountain.
The film ‘Between Loss and Responsibility - Expellees and their Homeland’ by Dr Martin Posselt (ARD-alpha) was shown in the monastery inn. It focussed on the history of the displaced Sudeten Germans and their relationship to their old and new homeland.
The priest of the German-speaking community in Prague, Father Martin Leitgöb, held the festive service in honour of Saint Hedwig in the pilgrimage church in Andechs.
The subsequent panel discussion ‘The world is falling apart - what is Europe doing?’ was moderated by the Federal Chairman of the Pan-European Youth, Franziskus Posselt.
Press release: UN reform and refugee flows (DE) (PDF)