The Council's Liaison Office in New York

Summary: January 15, 2004: The Council's Liaison Office in New York

Why a Council's Liaison Office in New York?

The Council's Liaison Office in New York (NYLO) was established in 1994, immediately after the entry into force of the Treaty on European Union (the Maastricht Treaty), in order to serve as a support structure to the newly established Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). The Treaty rendered mandatory the systematic cooperation between the Member States (Article 12 TEU), the coordination of their action in International Organisations (Article 19 TEU), and the cooperation of representations in International organisations in order to ensure that foreign policy Common Positions and Joint Actions were complied with and implemented ( Article 20 TEU). A futher impetus to the role of NYLO was given after the Amsterdam revision of the TEU (1999), which created the function of a High representative for CFSP. Finally, the recent development of a European Security and Defence policy (ESDP) entrusted to the Council of the EU, gave the Council Secretariat's presence in New York an operational dimension of its own. Today, the mission of NYLO is as follows:

To provide information, reports and analyses on United Nations activities to the Secretary General/High Representative for CFSP, to the General Secretariat of the Council, in particular DGE, and, through DGE, to Council bodies.
To assist the Presidency and the Member states in the day-to-day running of EU business and in the representation of the CFSP in New York
To assist the Secretary general /High Representative for CFSP in the activities entrusted to him by virtue of Article 26 TEU.
To help ensuring continuity and consistency across the rotating Presidencies.
To ensure working contacts with relevant UN Secretariat structures, and in particular DPKO.

The Council Secretariat is part of the Troika consisting of the Presidency, the Council Secretariat, the Commission, and the future Presidency if need be (see Article 18, paragraphs 3 and 4 TEU).

Function and Services

1. Assistance to the Presidency in the planning and organisation of meetings: before and during the Presidency, the GSC assists by:

identifying possible topics for discussion at HoM or DPR meetings,
providing background information,
planning some "burden-sharing" with the Presidency through regular co-ordination meetings,
participating in weekly briefings in preparation of HoMs meetingslooking ahead to UN and relevant EU meeting programmes.

2. Monitoring the work of Council bodies in Brussels in areas of interest to EU activities in New York and disseminating of the relevant information.

3. Policy assistance to the Presidency, in particular on CFSP and ESDP matters.

4. Participation in Troika meetings and reporting on outcome of discussions.

5. Representing the High representative and the EU Military Staff at the United Nations organs in New York.

6. Providing the secretariat of meetings (preparation, reporting, text drafting), circulate and archive documents.

7. Running the alignment procedure with the acceding States, the candidate States , the EFTA countries belonging to the EEA , and the Western Balkan States parties to Stabilisation and Association agreements,

8. Providing the necessary technical infrastructure and support for meetings.

Ref: CLNY04-001EN
EU source: Council
UN forum:
Date: 15/1/2004

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