Summary: March 4, 2003: Statement by Mr. Dimitrios Zevelakis, Counselor, Permanent Mission of Greece to the UN, on behalf of the European Union, on the Scale of Assessments: Item 117, during the 1st Resumed Session of the of the 5th Committee of the 57th UNGA (New York)
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The acceding countries, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and the countries associated with the EU - Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey - as well as the EFTA countries of Iceland and Liechtenstein align themselves with this statement.
Mr. Chairman, in adopting reformed regular budget and peacekeeping scales in 2000, the General Assembly also decided not to change the elements of the scale methodology for the upcoming scale period, thus providing Member-States with a much needed period of stability. The elements of the methodology are not, therefore, for discussion in the 58th Session.
These reformed scales should ideally have contributed to the financial health of the Organization; this goal, regrettably, remains out of reach in the absence of accompanying measures.
In the interest of our shared goal of ensuring the operational capability of this House, which is dependent on its financial situation, the European Union believes that we need to encourage compliance with the provisions of article 19, and address the issue of adopting provisions to ensure payment of assessed contributions in full, on time and without conditions.
All this is essential for the financial well-being of the Organization. We believe, therefore, that we should continue the consideration of issues such as the computation of payments and arrears on the basis of net-net calculations, and the merits of the biannual calculation of arrears. We also recall that the General Assembly in its 56th Session stressed the importance of Member-States in arrears providing a schedule of payment or an explanation of their intentions regarding payment.
As the Committee is aware, it has been a long-standing position of the Union that we should examine the possibility of introduction of incentives.
The report of the Secretary General A/57/76 contains several pertinent proposals for measures aimed at reduction and eventual payment of arrears.
We have also taken note of the proposal that budgetary surpluses should be allocated to Member States on an account-by-account basis and their respective shares credited to those Member States with no outstanding, due and payable assessments.
We also concur with the Committee on Contributions recommendation on introducing interest on arrears, a measure that could be further explored.
In this context, we welcome the provision contained in the resolution we adopted last December, which endorsed the conclusions and recommendations of the Committee on Contributions concerning multi-year payment plans and we would like to see the Committee on Contributions examining the application of such plans in depth.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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