Angela Merkel: Job offer from New York

Germany’s ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel has a job offer from New York: UN head António Guterres would like to win the 67-year-old for an advisory role at the United Nations. As the dpa 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 retired last year after 16 years as German head of government. At the United Nations, however, the likelihood that she will accept the job offer from the UN headquarters on New York’s East River is considered to be rather low. So far, there has been no response from Merkel, it said. Officially, representatives of the United Nations did not want to comment on the offer.

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The Advisory Board on Global Public Goods is one of Guterres’ flagship projects on United Nations reform during 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 concern 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.

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