Coffee Club

Uniting for Consensus (UfC) is a movement, nicknamed the Coffee Club, that developed in the 1990s in opposition to the possible expansion of permanent seats in the United Nations Security Council. Under the leadership of Italy, it aims to counter the bids for permanent seats proposed by G4 nations (Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan) and is calling for a consensus before any decision is reached on the form and size of the Security Council.

Italy, through the ambassador Francesco Paolo Fulci, along with Pakistan, Mexico and Egypt, in 1995 founded the "Coffee Club". The four countries were united by a rejection of the proposal to increase number of permanent members of the Security Council, instead desiring to encourage the expansion of non-permanent seats. The founders of the group were soon joined by other countries, including Spain, Argentina, Turkey, Canada, and South Korea, and in a short time the group came to include about 50 countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The thesis of the Uniting for Consensus group is that the increase of permanent seats would have further accentuated the disparity between the member countries and resulted in the extension of a series of privileges with a cascade effect. The new permanent members would have in fact benefited from the method of electing particularly advantageous in a number of specific organs of the United Nations System.

After having agreed with the need to increase the representativeness of the Security Council, in 2005 during the 59th session of the United Nations General Assembly, the UfC group — led by the representatives of Canada, Italy, Colombia and Pakistan — made a proposal that centres on an enlargement of the number of non-permanent members from ten to twenty. The non-permanent members would be elected by the General Assembly for a two-year term and would be eligible for immediate re-election, subject to the decision of their respective geographical groups. The other members and co-sponsors of the text, entitled "Reform of the Security Council", were listed as Argentina, Costa Rica, Malta, Mexico, San Marino, South Korea, Spain and Turkey. Although the proposal was not accepted, the initiative found broad consensus among member states, including permanent member China.

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