EU Presidency Statement - Proposed Programme Budget for the Biennium 2004-2005

Mr. Chairman,

Greece has the honor to take the floor in our capacity as an observer to the 43rd session of the CPC. However, on this occasion, we also take the floor on behalf of the EU. The associated countries Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey and the EFTA country Iceland have aligned themselves with this statement.

The EU seldom speaks in the CPC. The Committee constitutes of those Member States chosen to represent their respective regional groups in the important deliberations concerning programming and evaluation issues. Greece, like other delegations, participates on a national basis.

Nevertheless, Mr. Chairman, this is an unusually important year for the inter-governmental discussion of the program budget given the relevance of the S-G's efforts to address ways in which the UN could and should be strengthened if it is to be able to address the strategic priorities set by the UN membership. The issues which the GA examined last year in the context of strengthening the UN were largely structural and systemic. This is the year when we have to monitor implementation of the outcome of the GA's deliberations as realized in GA resolution 57/300, and ultimately allocate the necessary resources.

Hence the interest in today's debate and the reason why the E.U. Presidency wishes to make a brief intervention to flag the issues of concern and priority for the EU. The EU believes in an up-to-date, effective, cost-efficient U.N., fully capable to implement the roles mandated by its membership and deliver demonstrable value for money in the resources required for this purpose. We believe in investment in high-quality staff. Information technology has a crucial role in improving program delivery, generating efficiency in administrative services, and enabling full connectivity of all parts of the UN machinery.

That is how the EU judges the objectives and resource requirements for the next biennium. We are grateful for the time and effort which has gone into the preparation of the draft program budget for 2004-5, and will examine it closely to see how well the allocation of resources match the priorities, as set out by Member States, keeping in mind the objectives the S-G set himself last September in his report on strengthening the UN.

Mr. Chairman,

Of particular concern for the EU, in the context of this CPC session, are questions of budget presentation. We need budgets which are clear and strategic, where resources are fully justified against the objectives of the UN as set out in the Millennium Declaration and the medium term plan. That was rightly Action Number One in A/57/387. The EU commends the Introduction to the budget in Part A, which provides a convincing and clear exposition of how the budget contributes to a more effective UN offering value for money and coherence of programmatic activity. The budget, however, is still a large document, that could benefit, in the future, from further consolidation - both in content and overall length - to make it more manageable for the GA and a more strategic means for the Secretariat in objective setting and resource allocation.

The EU notes with appreciation the continuing progress made in applying Results Based Budgeting to the budget. RBB is an important tool for program managers, helping prioritize and focus implementation on objective-setting. More can be done, however. RBB is not merely a presentational device: it is a guide to those running the policy and to those evaluating the end products. Refinement of objectives and methods to reach them constitute an exercise in discipline and a necessary management tool. We urge the Secretariat to intensify its efforts to perfect these and provide us with detailed information on progress achieved and proposals for further exploration.

Better monitoring and evaluation are sorely needed and their results should be reflected in subsequent budgets. A more developed results-based culture and an effective self-evaluation of program activity must underpin prioritization. The EU is deeply committed to the process of prioritization identified in the S-G's report of last fall and how this renewed drive to identify the priorities of the Organisation is expressed in the draft program budget for 2004-5.

This is a huge undertaking, albeit one which we hope has not had to start from scratch. The EU would be interested to hear more about the degree of prioritization in the proposed budget for 2004-5, the degree to which resources have been shifted between competing activities, the financial implications of such shifts, and the degree to which program managers have been able to identify low-value activity and recommend to the GA that this be terminated. This is essential for ensuring that the whole budget, not just the adjustments at the margin, is laid before the GA and that the membership has a proper sense of the direction of the UN - and the resource implications - over the coming biennium.

The same applies to efforts to eliminate duplication of activity within and among UN duty stations. Resource allocation must respond to changing functions and roles. It needs to be kept under review on a continuous basis. Duplication of function breeds inefficiency and squanders resources. It is hard to monitor when the budget is presented in fascicle format, covering individual policy areas. That makes even more important to keep duplication under review and have a mechanism for so doing. We would be grateful for the USG's comments on how well the risk of duplication of functions in both administrative and programmatic activity is addressed.

Mr. Chairman,

The EU has an interest in all parts of the budget. Among other issues, economic and social affairs and Africa deserve our attention. The EU has shown a long-standing commitment to these issues and looks forward to dealing with them in more depth. Strengthening the work of the U.N. in the field of human rights is also an EU priority.

We are committed to improving the realizable potential of information technology to pursue the sort of vision set out in the comprehensive strategy prepared a few months ago. Public information efforts, including libraries and publications, are very important, and we look forward to hearing later on in this session the outcome of recent and impending changes. Conference service management is essential for the good conduct of UN business and we look forward to supporting the changes under way in that particular department.

This is a wide agenda, much of which will apply to the fall discussions in the GA as well as to the deliberations of this Committee. The E.U. hopes that the membership of the CPC has found it helpful to hear the issues which are on the collective mind of the E.U. as we begin the process of the inter-governmental discussion of programs - and eventually resources - for the next biennium.

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 outline for the biennium 2004-2005 (9/12/2002)