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EU statement - UNHCR 93rd Standing Committee - International Protection

European External Action Service (EEAS)

17.06.2025
Geneva
Press and information team of the Delegation to the UN in Geneva

European Union

UNHCR 93rd Standing Committee

17-19 June 2025

Agenda Item 2a): International Protection

Statement by the European Union and its Member States

Thank you, Chair.

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.

1. The EU and its Member States thank UNHCR for this year's note on international protection.

2. As we prepare for World Refugee Day on 20 June, we express our deep concern as unprecedented funding cuts are challenging our established multilateral system and partners' operational capacities, seriously affecting those in need of international protection and their host communities.

3. We express our full solidarity with UNHCR and its staff in view of the ongoing transition. We also thank High Commissioner Grandi for the recent updates, which helped to appreciate the scale of the impact these changes had on the UN Refugee Agency. We look forward to further engagement with UNHCR on this.

4. The EU and its Member States remain strongly engaged to support forcibly displaced persons and their host communities. The EU has consistently demonstrated a strong commitment to fulfilling its share of responsibility, as evidenced by its pledges during the Global Refugee Forums in 2019 and 2023.

5. We continue to stand by the 1951 Refugee Convention and work towards reinforcing the protection and asylum space globally. In 2024, almost 1 million persons applied for international protection in the EU and EU Member States granted protection at first instance to almost 390 000 persons. Further, the EU and its Member States continue to provide temporary protection to almost 4.3 million people, mostly women and children, who have fled Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. On 13 June, the EU decided to prolong the Temporary Protection for another year, until March 2027.

6. We also continue modernising our asylum and migration system under the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, in compliance with international law and in cooperation with UNHCR.

7. We continue to tackle all crises, such as the ongoing conflict in Sudan, which has triggered immense suffering and the largest displacement crisis globally, and Syria, where half of the population remains displaced inside and outside the country more than 14 years after the start of the war.

8. There is no life-saving aid without protection. It is foundational to the humanitarian core mandate and crucial for sustaining human life and dignity. Investing in protection should also be a strategic consideration in our common efforts to reduce needs. It is imperative that protection is upheld as a collective priority in the ongoing prioritization and rationalization processes such as the humanitarian reset and UN80 initiative.

9. A key feature of effective protection is to identify and address the needs of persons in most vulnerable situations and at most risk, including protection from sexual and gender-based violence, even when it requires extra costs or going the extra mile. Protection efforts must be inclusive and built upon the principle of non-discrimination.

10. We encourage and support ongoing efforts on behalf of UNHCR and IOM aiming at designing policies and building partnerships to address mixed movements of migrants and refugees with a whole-of-route, rights-based and comprehensive approach and with the aim of providing protection and durable solutions. We remain committed to UNHCR, IOM, partner countries and other stakeholders in the pursuit of utilising scarce resources more effectively and efficiently.

11. We believe that the current difficult situation gives us no choice but to strengthen collective action, harmonise and innovate to adapt to the challenges. Coordinated approaches are more needed than ever to ensure that emergency relief efforts pave the way for sustainable development, fostering peace and resilience in crisis-affected communities. The opportunity provided by UN80 and the humanitarian reset to truly further more effective and strategic cooperation between all relevant actors should be seized.

    Thank you.