I wish to thank the Japanese Presidency for organizing this Open Debate, and we are pleased to see it back after the last such debate held in August of 2008. There are at least two merits to this type of discussion: it places all Member States in a position to know the main issues related to the Security Council’s working methods; and it helps us to identify concrete solutions to improve them.
  We have heard, also over the last weeks and months, some interesting ideas on improving working methods, beginning with the proposals of the “Small Five” to whom we pay tribute for the excellent work it has long been promoting on this question. Italy is moving along the same lines and has put on the table a series of suggestions aimed at impacting the Security Council’s working methods, for the sake of greater transparency and greater access to and participation in the Council.
 There are many aspects of working methods that still need improvement: old concerns, like the demand to increase and give renewed impetus to open meetings, for example; and more recent ones, like the issues of sanctions regimes and relationships with TCCs, where significant changes have been introduced but much remains to be done. The Presidential Note 507 of 2006 is a significant point of reference in this process. We fully endorse an update of its contents, which could serve as guide to all Member States in this endeavor.
It is not my intention today to make a list of what we achieved and what we did not. I will focus my remarks instead on a matter of procedure and, if I may say so, of goodwill. Mr. President, as we all know some innovations to working methods would require amendments to the Charter.
But what I am proposing today, however, is a renewed commitment and effort by all Council Members to implement at least some of the measures we are discussing that do not require a Charter amendment. In other words, we can use this debate to identify measures that can be enacted immediately. Let us consider, for example, the following three proposals on interaction with non Council members:
1. There is a widely supported request to improve such an interaction, especially with troop- and police-contributing Countries. They should be more engaged in the Council’s proceedings through open meetings and informal consultations, and by creating standard procedures for hearing their views. This is true also for the regional organizations most involved in questions being debated. If our goal is to interact with today’s world, we cannot exclude regional organizations. 
2. There is significant support for greater use of the Arria format, which allows civil society and NGOs to enter into a dialogue with the Council;
3. Lastly, there are demands to increase recourse to open meetings and reduce to a minimum closed meetings and informal consultations. At the very least, there should be post-meeting briefings by the President to non-member States or at least to interested States. Mr. President,
in another room of this building we are engaged in a process of reform of the Security Council where a comprehensive package that entails amendments to the UN Charter also on working methods is discussed. 
But implementing the proposals that I have mentioned today would not require a Charter amendment. So, Mr. President, we should decide that these demands should enter into the Council’s practices effective immediately. In this way we would provide an immediate answer to primary needs that are easy to fulfill.
A final word, Mr. President, on one prerequisite for a substantial and lasting reform of working methods. As we all know, the search for major innovations in working methods has been promoted most enthusiastically by Countries who are not permanent members of the Council and are seeking access to a body on which they cannot be seated for perpetuity. Of these, a key role is played by the Small States. This is understandable, since as we know, the current exclusionary practices make Council membership virtually off-limits for them.
In our view, this is a clear demonstration that only a Council where the principles of accountability, elections and rotation are enhanced would assure a genuine and ongoing effort toward reform in the Council’s working methods. Those who know they will spend limited periods of time in the Council will do everything possible, once they get there, to assure that in the future the room will be more open, accessible, and transparent.
I conclude here, Mr. President, in deference to the five-minute rule: another innovation in working methods, which we can put into place immediately.  I thank you Mr. President.