Instead of two years for one country, one year for both. Italy and the Netherlands have reached a compromise, proposing this solution to the UN assembly to share the non-permanent seat on the Security Council which has not been assigned because neither of the two countries has reached the necessary quorum.
The political agreement between the Netherlands and Italy was reached after five black smokes - while Sweden passed to the first round - by foreign ministers Bert Koenders and Paolo Gentiloni, who met with their respective delegations in the office of the president of the Mogens Lykketoft General Assembly.
The seat on the Security Council divided between two countries is a very rare occurrence: it happened the first time in 1955 with Yugoslavia and the Philippines and very few other times.
“With this proposal we want to pass on a message of unity between two European countries and we took our cue from this perfect parity, 95 to 95 in the last vote – said Gentiloni in New York -. We will serve one year each”. Italy will be the first to occupy the seat in the Council in 2017 and will collaborate with the Netherlands the following year.
