The UN Secretary-General wants Angela Merkel to chair a high-ranking advisory body on global public goods. Your answer is pending.
Long-serving German Chancellor Angela Merkel (left) speaks to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on December 18, 2020.
(dpa)
Former Chancellor Angela Merkel has received a job offer from New York: UN chief António Guterres would like to win the 67-year-old for an advisory role at the United Nations. As the German Press Agency learned from UN circles, Guterres offered Merkel the chair of a high-ranking advisory body on global public goods, which should potentially serve the entire world population across national borders. Examples of global public goods are the ozone layer, but also, depending on the definition, internationally applicable regulations such as those on flight safety and global trade.
Accordingly, Guterres made the offer in a letter to Merkel – who left last year after 16 years as German head of government. At the United Nations, however, the probability that she will accept the job offer from the UN headquarters on New York’s East River is considered to be rather low. An answer from Merkel is not yet available, it said. Officially, representatives of the United Nations did not want to comment on the offer.
The Advisory Board on Global Public Goods is one of Guterres’ flagship projects on United Nations reform in his second term, which began in early January. In his report on transforming the UN last year, the Secretary-General wrote: “I will ask a high-level advisory board, led by former leaders, to identify global public goods and other areas of common interest where improvements in governance are most urgently needed required are.”
According to Guterres, the corona pandemic has revealed major gaps in international cooperation. The envisaged advisory body should provide impetus for renewing practices and principles for action on a global level.