Summary: October 28, 2003: Statement on behalf of the European Union by H.E. Ambassador Marcello Spatafora, Permanent Representative of Italy to the U.N.. Fifth Committee - PROPOSED PROGRAMME BUDGET FOR THE BIENNIUM 2004-2005 Item 121 (New York)
Mr. Chairman,
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The acceding countries Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia, the associated countries Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and the EFTA countries, members of the European Economic Area (Iceland, Liechtenstein) declare that they align themselves with this statement.
I would like to thank the Secretary General, the Chairman of the ACABQ, and the Chairman of the CPC for their excellent presentations.
The SG has spoken his mind clear and loud. Food for thought and for action for all of us, having in mind that, as you said, the challenge before us is achieving results more than just delivering products and services.
Mr. Secretary General,
I would like to start by paying tribute to your personal contribution to improving the financial management and effectiveness of the Organisation. You came into office committed to this effort and you have remained vigorous in pursuit of the objective of getting the most out of the Organisation and using the membership's financial contributions to optimal effect.
We have listened to your comprehensive and clear presentation of the programme budget of the U.N. for the years 2004-2005, which marks the next important step towards establishing a clear vision of an efficient U.N., that can live up to the many responsibilities placed on it by us, the member States, and create also a financial environment which provides the necessary assurances about sound financial management, proper prioritisation and value for money.
It is a fact that negotiations on the future resources of the UN take place in a year of unusual challenges for the Organization.
This autumn, the Fifth Committee will face two main objectives: to adopt the budget for 2004-2005 and to advance the implementation of the managerial reform of the U.N., many elements of which are contained in resolution 57/300. In this context, the E.U. also intends to pursue energetically the question of how to strengthen intergovernmental budget and programme process.
In this regard, we sincerely commend your endeavours, Mr. Secretary General, in carrying out this fundamental process of rethinking the budgetary procedures, and let me ensure you: the E.U. is behind you!
Mr. Secretary General,
We commend you, for the improved format of the programme budget 2004-2005, taking the budgeting of the U.N. in a more strategic direction. We note that the programme budget has gone past the unprecedented level of 3 billion dollars - recosting included. This is a cause for concern. However, we recognize that such an increase is mainly the direct consequence of the new mandates, increased safety and security, adaptation of staff salaries and recosting.
The current membership of the E.U. collectively will pay about 37% of the budget in 2004-5, I repeat, 37%, which is the highest quota of the budget, a percentage which will increase in the early part of the next biennium when the E.U.'s enlargement continues its historic mission. It is incumbent on us to remind the GA of the E.U.'s continuing attachment to budgetary discipline, especially considering the rising level of the budget.
A good budget must give the U.N. the financial means it needs to accomplish its mandates: this must be clear. But at the same time it must reflect the endeavours that you, Mr. Secretary General, and we, the U.N. Membership, make to prioritise allocation of resources, rationalise working methods, redouble efforts to discontinue a greater number of obsolete outputs, and create systemic economies for the benefit of the U.N.'s priorities.
In a few words, Mr. Secretary General: we want to fill the ship with fuel, but with an engine that is capable of travelling at full steam ahead!
Mr. Secretary General,
We wish to thank the U.S.G. Mrs. Bertini and her team, namely the Controller and the Director of the Budget for the extraordinary amount of work involved in putting this together at a time of great change and many uncertainties for the future resource requirements of the UN.
The overall approach to the budget is set out clearly, and the key concepts driving the preparation of the budget are well presented in a readable and succinct way. But the E.U. is very ambitious in this regard. We endorsed 100% of your proposals in your report last year on strengthening of the U.N., which established the case for a short, strategic and genuinely informative budget. The E.U. urges you to continue towards this objective, keeping the momentum, as you said.
Better documentation, and above all a clear coherent budget, in which resource requirements are fully justified and linked to the Organisation's strategic, medium and short-term objectives, is crucial to enabling the GA to conduct a well-informed and constructive negotiation.
A shorter, easier document also creates the conditions for improved transparency, as it was said before. The E.U. notes that some elements of the budget for 2004-05 are less than clear and we would have preferred to see a better distinction between recurrent and one-off expenditures.
Referring to Results-Based Budgeting, the E.U., while commending the efforts undertaken, reaffirms its expectation that RBB will be ever more the fundamental principle of budgeting in the U.N., as it is already the reality in many of our national systems. We encourage you, Mr. Secretary General, to strive for continued progress in this vital field and to give renewed impetus to this effort. In particular, it is important that programme managers provide the necessary leadership and
expertise.
Mr. Secretary General,
Turning to programmatic issues, your priorities for the new budget are the E.U.'s priorities too.
In fact, our main benchmark in examining the budget will be - beside the above mentioned reform of the U.N.- the budget's compliance with the Millennium Declaration, particularly in the fields of International Peace and Security, including the Special Political Missions, the strengthening of resources for Human Rights, Gender Policy and Empowerment of Women, Protection of Refugees, Economic and Development Cooperation - especially in Africa - Environmental Protection, and International Law. All
these sectors are of the utmost importance for the EU.
Having in mind these priorities, our review of the budget will be focused and rigorous, yet avoiding a line-by-line examination. In fact, we consider that the ACABQ has already accomplished a thorough analysis of the budget sections, and that the 5th Committee shouldn't duplicate its valuable work. In this respect, let me add that the ACABQ's recommendations can be considered in many cases an important reference for our negotiations.
Without losing our focus on priorities, we will also address the crosscutting issues of the budget.
We agree that Information and Communication Technology is central to both improve the capacity of the organization workflow and generate real advantages and economies in other management areas (such as staffing, or staff travels). We also underline the importance of training of staff.
We also believe that your endeavours to rationalize the Public Information sector are to be commended, and further steps can now be taken, particularly with reference to the UN Information Centres reform. In this regard, the European Union example with closure of 9 UNICS must be followed without delay by likewise measures in other regions and part of the savings should be redeployed to strengthen multilingualism on the web site, and the evaluation of services. The EU will require the next step
in this continuous process of rationalisation to be explicitly specified in the budget resolution.
Furthermore, we welcome your initiatives in the field of Conferences Services. It is essential to continue to streamline documentation, improve the system of committee secretaries supporting the GA main committees, and enhance the use of IT. We agree that the Repertory of Practice is no longer a cost that should fall to the regular budget. The EU notes the continuing requirement to finance the Sessions of the Conferences to Combat Desertification and Climate Changes through the regular
budget.
Concerning Publications, we share your commitment to put in order a sector neglected for too long: it is inconceivable that the total cost of publications throughout the Organization is still unknown. We expect the development of a coherent policy in this field consolidating the number and enhancing the quality of publications.
The E.U. also stresses the necessity of supporting and improving multilingualism across all activities of the Organisation.
Mr. Secretary General,
Let me now address a crucial budgetary issue: staff. The UN is a labour-oriented organization, which already accounts for over 9 thousand posts financed through budgetary resources, plus other 7 thousand through extra budgetary funds. Staff costs represent almost 80% of the total regular budget of the UN.
The EU, looking closely to the ACABQ recommendations, is willing to examine the creation of those new posts that are indispensable to carry out the mandates in priority areas of the Organization in the spirit of the reform. However, the E.U. also believes we should stand back and take a proper look at requirements during the next biennium for establishing new posts. The principles that the E.U. intends to apply this autumn are:
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