EU Presidency Statement - Human Resources Management

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 Stabilization and Association Process Countries, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Serbia and Montenegro, the Associated Countries Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and the EFTA countries, members of the European Economic Area, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, declare that they align themselves with this statement.

The European Union would like to thank the Secretariat for the reports put before this Committee on Human Resources Management, as contained in documents A/58/666, A/C.5/58/L.13 and A/58/283.

The European Union has duly noted the changes that the Secretary-General intends to make to the Staff Rules as contained in A/58/283.

We thank the Secretariat for its always useful and interesting report on the "Composition of the Secretariat", in document A/58/666. We are especially pleased to note that during the period from 1 July 1998 to 30 June 2003, the number of female staff members at the D-1 grade and above increased by approximately 20 per cent, from 92 to 111 and that over the past five years, the number of female staff in posts subject to geographical distribution has increased by 3.7 per cent. However, the two most senior grades of the Secretariat (Under-Secretary-General and Assistant Secretary-General) still have a low female staff representation and the numbers of female staff also remain low in the Director category.

We, therefore, welcome, the initiative undertaken by the Office of Human Resources Management, together with the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, to undertake a number of innovative efforts to reach the gender balance target in the Secretariat. We welcome further discussion on the impact of these initiatives at an appropriate time.

We would like to flag our concern that, as at 30 June 2003, 17 Member States were unrepresented in the Secretariat in posts subject to geographical distribution compared to 16 unrepresented Member States in June 2002 and that 13 Member States are unrepresented in all staff categories, though this figure does include the new Member State of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste

We also note that whilst as of June 2003 some EU Member States were over-represented, others were still under-represented. The E.U. stresses once again the importance of ensuring the equitable geographical representation of all Member States in the Secretariat and in that connection thanks the Secretariat for organizing national competitive examinations in those Member States who are inadequately represented in the Secretariat, including in a number of affected EU countries. We encourage the Secretariat to recruit as many from the roster of successful candidates as possible.

As this report points out, a total of 1,597 Secretariat staff will reach the mandatory retirement age during the next five years. We hope that the Secretariat will be able to take advantage of this situation to improve geographical and gender distribution as well as to help reduce the average age of the Secretariat.

We are glad to note that comprehensive information on human resources action planning will be submitted to the General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session and the European Union will return to these issues when the Fifth Committee engages in its comprehensive discussion of Human Resources Management at that session.

Thank you Mr. Chairman.

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