3 October 2012: Vuk Jeremic, President of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), detailed his priorities for the Assembly’s 67th Session, saying his first priority is the “post-2015 development agenda.” He noted the UNGA’s mandate, from the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20), to be in charge of follow-up to the Conference, including the formation of the Open Working Group (OWG) on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Jeremic said he will take responsibility for determining the members of the 30-member OWG, in a joint effort alongside Brazil’s Permanent Representative. In that capacity, he will seek to ensure that the process is fully complementary and combined with the process around the post-2015 development agenda.

He said he will work to make sure the work of the OWG and the High-Level Panel (HLP) on the Post-2015 Development Agenda is not separate, “let alone diverging.”

Jeremic said he expected the HLP to “put forward next May the list of the post-2015 goals.”

Other priorities for this session include: the overall theme of “A Peaceful Settlement of International Conflicts;” enhancing the role of the UN Alliance of Civilizations; and creating a consultative mechanism between the UNGA and the Group of 20 (G20) to give all countries – “the G173” – in the world more prominence in global economic governance. Jeremic said he will convene a high-level debate on this potential mechanism in 2013. [UN Press Release] [Summary of Press Conference] [Webcast of Press Conference]