EU Presidency Statement - UN ECE 57th Session on 'The Steering Group'

Summary: May 10, 2002: Statement by the Presidency of the European Union at the 57th Session of the UN ECE (Economic Commission for Europe) on Agenda Item 5: The Steering Group (May 7-10, 2002), (Geneva)

Mr. Chairman,

We thank you and the Executive Secretary for your reports on the discussions of the Steering Group session held yesterday the 9th of May. Before commenting on issues specific to several PSBs, the EU would like to set out general considerations on the relations between the ECE Steering Group and the Annual Session.

The Steering Group has the potential to play an important role in strengthening communication and interaction among PSBs, thereby contributing to increased coherence and improved information flows within ECE. These functions should have a high priority in the Annual Session. We therefore believe that the whole Steering Group meeting should become an integral part of the regular session of the Commission. To this end each PSBs should prepare a concise, action oriented report (about three pages) to be formally discussed and dealing basically with four issues:

Accomplishments, problems and unsettled issues of the PSB concerned and its subsidiary groups since the last Annual Session.
Expected challenges for the next few years.
The architecture of the subsidiary groups, including past and expected changes in their number and functions, as well as the rate of participation of ECE Member States.
The status of the main Conventions, Protocols and other Agreements negotiated within ECE (number of ratifications and accessions).

These reports should be included in an overall report prepared by the Secretariat to be submitted as an official document of the Annual Session. It will provide an overall view
of ECE activities, including cross cutting issues affecting several PSBs, i.e. budgetary issues and voluntary contributions.

Mr. Chairman, we have appreciated the information received from different Chairpersons of PSBs during this session. They are all relevant to our work, but on this occasion we would concentrate our comments on one of them.

We salute the excellent work done by the Secretariat of the Committee on Trade, Industry and Enterprise Development in a number of areas - such as trade facilitation and public and private partnerships - and look forward, in particular, to the International Forum on Trade Facilitation that will be held on 29 and 30 May. We believe that this event demonstrates the constructive contribution that ECE can make to the process underway in WTO. We attach importance to the work of CEFACT and would like to be fully informed about the proposals for the reform of its structure.

Mr. Chairman,

We are seriously concerned to see the effects that the re-allocation of work on industry and enterprise development from the Trade Division to the Coordinating Unit on Operational Activities, together with the transfer of a number of Regional Advisers to that Unit, has had on the coherence and co-ordination of work towards fulfilling the ECE core objectives as defined in the Plan of Action. This is, of course, an issue which is particularly relevant in relation to the regional preparation for the World Summit on Information Society and the UN ICT Task Force.

Concerning the conclusions of the Steering Group meeting yesterday, we are ready to consider them once we receive them in writing; including the possibility of splitting the Annual Session and the Seminar, an issue presently under discussion also within the European Union.

We wish to thank the Chairperson of the Group of Experts on the Programme of Work for her report and efficiency in chairing the Group. We endorse the document that we hope will reinforce significantly the Annual Session in the future.

Ref: PRES02-079EN
EU source: EU Presidency
UN forum: Other
Date: 10/5/2002

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