“Missed opportunities and new perspectives” is the title given to the 2006 Annual Assessment on Global Governance published by the Secretariat of the Commission of Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE). This 26 page document was produced in cooperation with Dr. Charlotte Kreuter Kirchhof. It deplores the missed chances for improving Global Governance in the course of 2006 – the suspension of the WTO Trade Round, the failed institutional reform of the UN… The document also invites the Catholic Church to follow the G8’s work more actively.
The document published today examines the most important developments in international organisations (IMF, WTO, G8, UN Global Migration Group) in the course of 2006 in view of their contribution to a more effective system of Global Governance.
Like its predecessors, the Global Governance Assessment 2006 contains chapters on common values as the spiritual foundation for Global Governance, on the international financial institutions, on WTO, on Climate change and on the G8.
The past year can be considered a key year for co-operation by the international community on questions related to growing international migration. For this reason the 2006 edition of the Global Governance Assessments has for the first time a chapter on migration. At the end of the document, presented to the bishops of COMECE at the end of March, it is proposed to strengthen the co-operation within the Church in accompanying the G8-process.
For several years COMECE has linked the notion of global governance to the quest for international solutions to global problems among which the fight against poverty and the protection of the environment have the highest priority. In 2001, a group of high ranking experts led by the former Managing Director of the IMF Michel Camdessus submitted a report on this issue to the bishops of COMECE. The secretariat of COMECE has since published a thematic analysis of events in international organisations on an annual basis.