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Merkel and Guterres in Berlin at the end of 2019
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Wolfgang Kumm / dpa
Ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel has apparently 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.
This is reported by the German Press Agency, citing UN circles.
Accordingly, Guterres offered Merkel the chair of a high-level 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.
According to the news agency, Guterres made the offer in a letter to the former chancellor.
At the United Nations, however, the probability that Merkel 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.
Merkel left office last year after 16 years as German head of government.
Her successor is the SPD politician Olaf Scholz.
Guterres took up his second term as UN chief at the beginning of January.
The Advisory Board on Global Public Goods is one of his flagship projects on United Nations reform.
In his report on changing the UN last year, the Secretary-General (read page 4 of the report) wrote: “I will ask a high-level advisory board led by former heads of state and government to identify global public goods and other areas of common concern where improvements in leadership are most needed.«
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.
aar/dpa
