EU Presidency Statement - Programme budget for the biennium 2002-2003

Mr. Chairman,

I have the honor to speak on behalf of the European Union. The acceding countries Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, as well as the associated countries Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey have aligned themselves with this statement.

First of all, we would like to thank the distinguished officials of the Secretariat for their introduction of a) the report of the Secretary-General on conditions of service and compensation for officials other than Secretariat officials, serving the General Assembly: full-time members of the International Civil Service Commission and the Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (A/C.5/57/35) and b) the report of the Secretary-General on conditions of service and compensation for officials other than Secretariat officials-members of the International Court of Justice, Judges of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and Judges of the International Tribunal for Rwanda (A/C.5/57/36). We would also like to thank the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions for the introduction of its twenty-sixth report on the salary and retirement allowance of the Secretary-General and the salary and pensionable renumeration of the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (A/57/7/Add.25).

We would also like to thank the Secretariat for the written reply provided to the European Union concerning the evolution of the annual compensation and the pensionable renumeration of the Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions and the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the International Civil Service Commission compared with the senior officials of the Secretariat at Headquarters over the period January 1998 through January 2003.

Mr. Chairman,

The European Union concurs with the recommendations of the ACABQ concerning the salary and retirement allowance of the Secretary-General and the relevant recommendation concerning the salary and pensionable renumeration of the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, contained in paragraph 9 of the above-mentioned report of th ACABQ. In this respect, we approve of the financial implications of the aforesaid recommendations concerning the gross salary, the net salary of the Secretary-General and the retirement allowance for the three former Secretaries-General as well as the proposed amendment to paragraph 1 of the Staff Regulations of the United Nations.

In connection with the conditions of service and compensation for full-time members of the International Civil Service Commission and the Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, the European Union takes note of the proposal of the Secretary-General, contained in paragraphs 4 and 6 of the above-mentioned report, and would require some clarification on the cycle of revision. In this respect, the E.U. will come back to this issue in the informal session in order to receive further information.

Finally, regarding the conditions of service and compensation for the members of the International Court of Justice, Judges of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and Judges of the International Tribunal for Rwanda, we have examined the issue, concerning, in particular, the existence of any provision that would bar payment of a retirement pension to Judges who have previously served in any one of those organs while serving as Judges of another of those organs.

In this respect, we endorse the conclusions and recommendations contained in Section IV of the aforesaid relevant report of the Secretary-General and with the proposed amendments to article 1 of the respective pension scheme regulations of the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Tribunal for Rwanda, which are set out in the annexes of the report under consideration. In light of the three different pension regulations in the Tribunals, we see the need for a newly designed common pension scheme, taking into account rules and regulations of the U.N. Joint Staff Pension Fund.

I thank you Mr. Chairman.

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• EU Presidency Statement - Proposed Programme Budget for Biennium 2004-2005 (23/12/2003)
• EU Presidency Statement - Budget for the biennium 2002-2003 (3/12/2002)
• EU Presidency Statement - Budget for the biennium 2002-2003 (3/12/2002)