UN Economic and Social Development
Division for Sustainable Development

H.E. MR. LÁSZLÓ BORBÉLY, Chairman (Romania)
Message from the Chair

Mr. László Borbély was elected Chairperson of the nineteenth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD19), a session which will focus on the thematic cluster of transport, chemicals, waste management, mining and a ten year framework programme on sustainable consumption and production patterns.

He is the Minister of Environment and Forests of Romania since December 2009. Prior to that, he was the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Foreign Affairs in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies. As the Minister of Development, Public Works and Housing, between April 2007 – December 2008, he promoted a program targeting - modernization, rehabilitation, extension of the Romanian drinking water networks and waste water purification systems.

In his capacity of Delegated Minister for Public Works and Regional Planning (between 2004 and 2007), he also actively contributed to the revigoration of the national thermal rehabilitation programme, as well as to the creation of the legal framework aiming to support the young generation to build new homes. In the very same period, constructively shaped the Strategic Concept of Regional Development of Romania for 2007 – 2030, a program aiming to maximize from the perspective of integrated regional development the potential of Romania and stimulate its well balanced development.

Mr. Borbély is one of the main promoters of the Danube Delta Strategy. In economic terms, implementation of this strategy will create new opportunities for business by improving accessibility, further expansion and modernization of port infrastructure, airport, road and rail system by creating a multi – modal transport, development and expansion of infrastructure utilities.

From 1996 to 2000, he served Romania as a State Secretary in the Ministry of Public Transportation and Regional Planning.

As an active representative of the Hungarian minority in Romania, Mr. László Borbély held the function of Vice-chairman of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania ever since 1998 and has been a Member of the Parliament in the Chamber of Deputies starting with 1990, right after the democratic revolution took place in Romania.

H.E. Mr. Andrew Goledzinowski, Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative at the Australian Mission to the United Nations in New York

H.E. Mr. Andrew Goledzinowski was elected Vice-Chairperson of the nineteenth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development, representing the West European and Others Group.

Mr. Andrew Goledzinowski is a career diplomat serving as Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative at the Australian Mission to the United Nations in New York. He has served on the personal staff of two Foreign Ministers as well as Assistant Secretary of the Counter Terrorism Branch and the International Organisations Branch of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He has served at Australian diplomatic posts in Pretoria, Port Vila and Geneva, where he was deputy permanent representative to the UN.

From 2000-2002 Mr Goledzinowski worked as Chief of Staff to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson.

From 2003-2004, he was deployed to Iraq where he served as the senior Australian official in the Coalition Provisional Authority, followed by a further nine month secondment to the World Bank as the Bank’s Senior Adviser to the Iraqi Government in Baghdad.

H.E. Mr. Silvano Vergara, Deputy General Administrator of the National Environmental Auhtority of Panama

H.E. Mr. Silvano Vergara was elected Vice-Chairperson of the nineteenth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development, representing the Latin American and the Caribbean States. He will replace the previous Vice-Chair from Panama, former Administrator General of the National Authority on the Environment of the Republic of Panama, H.E. Mr. Javier Arias Iriarte.

Mr. Eduardo R. Meñez was elected Vice-Chairperson of the nineteenth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development, representing the Asian Group.

Mr. Meñez is a career diplomat with a rank of Minister at the Mission of the Republic of the Philippines to the United Nations in New York. He has been in charge of the Second Committee and ECOSOC issues since July 2007. During this time, he has facilitated various resolutions under the Second Committee (on globalization and on anti-corruption) and in the ECOSOC (on the Committee for Development Policy), and has served as a Rapporteur and Vice-Chair in several UN meetings. Prior to his most recent election as a Vice-Chair of the 19th Session of the CSD, he was also Vice-Chair and Rapporteur of the CSD 18th Session. Mr. Meñez also covers migration issues in the Philippine Mission and participated actively during the Philippine hosting of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) in 2008.

Since joining the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs in 1991, Mr. Meñez has been assigned to Philippine Foreign Service posts in the Netherlands (1996-2002) and Singapore (2005-2007). Some of the positions he has held in the Home office were as Special Assistant to the Presidential Adviser on Foreign Affairs in the Office of the President (1992-1996), Foreign Policy Adviser of the Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs (2002-2004), and Special Assistant to the Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs (2004-2005).

Mr. Meñez graduated in Political Science and Law at the University of the Philippines.

Mr. Abdelghani Merabet was elected Vice-Chairperson of the nineteenth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development, representing the African Group

Mr. Merabet a career diplomat at the Permanent Mission of Algeria to the United Nations in charge of the Second Committee and ECOSOD issues within the Mission since 2009. Since joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Algeria in 2006 he worked for the Department of Economic Relations and International Cooperation which is dealing with, inter alia, issues related to sustainable development and environment

He graduated from the National School of Administration ENA of Algiers in 2001 in Economics and finance and from the Diplomatic and international relations institute of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Algeria. He speaks fluently Arabic, French and English and has a good knowledge of Spanish.