Mr. President, I’m delivering this speech on behalf of List E.

Let me start by expressing our gratitude to the UN Secretary-General Special Envoy Dr. Kalibata for participating in today’s event and for additional information on the preparations for the 2021 United Nations Food Systems Summit (FSS) in New York as well as for the global FSS Pre-Summit in Rome on 26-28 July.

List E countries appreciate the active work of the Special Envoy and her office under the leadership of the in the preparations for the above-mentioned events. Specifically, we would like to praise the activities of all structures involved in the preparatory process, i.e. Summit dialogues, Scientific Group on the five “Action Tracks” and the in-depth deliberations of the Advisory Committee, where I together with the Representative of Hungary have the honour to participate.

Given the current restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy and worldwide we uphold a proposed hybrid format of the Pre-Summit, with a limited in-person component in the FAO headquarters, complemented by a vast virtual programme and platform.

We also acknowledge the receipt of the invitation and updated materials dated 14 June for the Pre-Summit in Rome and we hope to revert soon on nominating our delegations to this event.

We expect that the Summit will provide an opportunity for a comprehensive constructive discussion on the entire range of agriculture and food systems issues. In would be crucial for this process to focus on consensus approaches, avoiding controversial concepts and duplication with other UN workstreams.

Our countries share the organizer’s vision that the Pre-Summit will provide the opportunity to deliver the latest evidence base and scientific approaches from around the world, strengthen coalitions of action and mobilize new financing and partnerships.

One of the practical outcomes of the future Summit and its game-changing solutions is the creation of a broad international School Meals Coalition, which I am advocating as a Member of the FSS Advisory Committee. Now there are more than 30 countries actively engaged in the activities of the core-group in support of this initiative. It has also received the broad support of the UN agencies, Inter-Governmental organizations and the NGOs. Therefore we request that the School Meals Coalition be given a clear slot as a Ministerial Meeting in the main agenda of the FSS Pre-Summit meeting in Rome.

We further request that the School Meals Coalition be prominently featured in the Secretary General’s Statement of Action for the Summit as a key result of the Food Systems Summit.

Thank you, Mr. President!