EU Presidency Statement - Special Committee on Peacekeeping

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, Slovenia, the candidate countries Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey, the countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process, and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro and the EFTA country, Iceland, a member of the European Economic Area, align themselves with this statement.

We welcome the report of the Secretary General on the implementation of the recommendations of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping.

The European Union has actively supported and participated in Peacekeeping operations and other relevant activities throughout the world from the Balkans to Africa and Asia, manifesting its commitment to the UN and maintaining peace around the globe.

The European Common Foreign Security Policy landscape has been significantly redefined over recent months. Last September, the UN and EU signed a joint declaration on crisis management with the aim of deepening cooperation and of providing reliable and sustainable mechanisms in the areas of planning, training, communication and best practice. In order to advance the Joint Declaration, meetings between UN and EU officials at the highest level have already taken place and are continuing, with Deputy Secretary General Fréchette in Brussels this week. The European Security Strategy, adopted by the European Council last December, signals the Union's movement towards a more strategic approach in the area of external action. The European Union wishes to build on the success of Operation Artemis and is currently pursuing a new initiative to focus on the development of its rapid reaction capabilities through the creation of a number of battle-group sized forces to undertake European Security and Defence Policy operations at short notice. This would also enhance the Union's ability to respond to UN requests in short-term crisis management situations.

Our objective for this year's session has been to concentrate on some major priority areas which are operationally-focussed on the current surge in global peacekeeping. The main areas we have focussed on in our preparation are Safety & Security, Cooperation between Regional Arrangements, Strengthening the UN's operational capabilities, Enhancing African Peacekeeping Capacity, Peace-building and Gender. Position papers on these six primary areas have been prepared and are available to all Member States. It goes without saying that the European Union follows with great interest the work of the Secretary General's High-Level Panel on Challenges, Threats and Change, particularly with regard to new challenges in the area of threats to international peace and security.

Mr. Chairman,

The European Union pays tribute to the courage and dedication of personnel working in peacekeeping operations and to those who have lost their lives in the service of peace including the twenty-two people killed in the bombing of United Nations headquarters in Baghdad last August, many of whom were among the most experienced of our colleagues. We place the highest priority on strengthening the Safety and Security of UN and associated personnel deployed in the field and welcome the steps taken by the Secretary General for a thorough review of the Safety and Security System of the UN. We recognise the need for an enhanced capacity for security assessment and risk and threat analysis. The European Union underlines the need for the establishment of a full-time focal point for Safety and Security in DPKO and for the improvement of information sharing, both at mission and New York Headquarter level. Such capacities are essential for an efficient and integrated approach to planning and managing UN Peacekeeping Operations. We welcome the introduction of the Joint Mission Analysis Cell model implemented in recent peacekeeping operations and recommend that it be utilised in future missions and appropriately resourced to carry out its functions.

We recommend that DPKO institute contingency arrangements for each individual mission to cater for its extraction from the field. We urge DPKO to ensure that adequate, customised medical facilities, supported by dedicated medical evacuation plans, are in place from the commencement stage of a mission.

Mr. Chairman,

The European Union acknowledges that the UN's approach to peacekeeping has been reformed and strengthened significantly in recent years. One aspect of this has been the creation of new types of partnerships and cooperation arrangements for peacekeeping between the UN and regional organisations. Regional organisations have unique and complementary capacities to offer, including established and evolving rapid response capabilities, in support of UN peacekeeping. We recommend that DPKO expand and deepen its contacts with regional organisations and their sub-regional partners, especially at the working level, in order to identify and implement practical means of tapping this potential for cooperation. We affirm that the quality and availability of capacity for a peacekeeping response is an important condition for the success of an operation. We recommend that the Best Practices Unit, in consultation with the regional organisations, continues to develop its catalogue of lessons learned from ARTEMIS in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, ECOMIL in Liberia and ECOMICI in Cote d'Ivoire and to ensure that these lessons are implemented in future partnerships with regional organisations.

The European Union recognises the significant progress made by DPKO to enhance its operational capacity; however, because of the complex nature of recent missions coupled with the current surge in operational activity, certain areas require further strengthening. We welcome the integrated task force concept and recommend that it be further developed across all departments and involving all stakeholders, producing a mission concept of operations and component plans that are fully understood, integrated, rehearsed and owned. We encourage DPKO to seek additional surge planning capacity from external sources such as existing regional HQs, formations such as SHIRBRIG or national staffs on a time/objective/mission orientated basis. The European Union recognises that DPKO's capacity for planning and implementing peace-building activities may need strengthening.

We welcome the UN's improved rapid response capability and encourage DPKO to assess and evaluate the effectiveness of the UNSAS arrangements and optimise the SDS system in light of recent lessons learned. However, when the contingency arises to deploy a peacekeeping force at much shorter notice, DPKO should develop partnerships with formations and regional arrangements that have the capacity to meet this specific need. The rapid deployment initiative pursued by the EU, aimed at deploying tactical groups of 1500 troops within fifteen days, for a period from 30 to 120 days, could help to match such requirements for very early deployment capacity in support of the UN. The European Union, whilst welcoming DPKO's recent pre-deployment headquarter training initiative, stresses the need for the deployment of coherent, well-trained, pre-existing headquarters at the initial stages of a mission to afford optimum levels of command and control.

Mr. Chairman,

The European Union is seized of the need to enhance both African peacekeeping capacity and the effectiveness and robustness of UN peacekeeping activities in Africa. We welcome and support renewed efforts by African states to intensify and strengthen conflict prevention, peacekeeping and peace-building activities. We believe that, in coordination with the UN, efforts must be made by all parties to bolster internal capacity through the training of civilian and military personnel and to strengthen external support for African peacekeeping, in order to meet the demands of the short-term surge and longer-term initiatives.

We welcome partnerships between the UN, its African Member States and regional and sub-regional organisations. Similarly, the support provided by donors and required by the African Union and sub-regional organisations needs to be actual and effective. The European Union is responding to requests from the African Union, in establishing the European Union Peace Facility for Africa which will be operational shortly. This is in addition to the efforts made by European Member States to support the enhancement of African peacekeeping capacities. Similarly, we recommend taking comprehensive regional approaches to more effectively address cross-border issues such as DDRRR, Small Arms and Light Weapons, Rule of Law, humanitarian issues and child soldiers.

Mr. Chairman,

We believe that elements of peace-building are integral to the success of a peacekeeping operation in the short-term, as well as being essential to sustainable peace and the long-term prevention of conflict. Peace-building measures can have a significant impact on the political, social and economic environment in the early phases of a mission. Enabling measures, such as Rule of Law, DDR and Quick Impact Projects, which can be said to be critical to the initiation and development of a sustainable peace, should be provided for by mission mandates from the outset, according to the individual needs of each mission.

We are of the view that more coordinated and effective planning is required for all aspects of a mission, in order to ensure a smooth transition from conventional peacekeeping operations to peace-building and subsequent long-term development activities. A comprehensive and integrated approach to peace-building is required from all relevant UN bodies, Member States, the Bretton Woods institutions and NGOs. Careful strategies, centred on early enabling peace-building measures must be developed and implemented in a timely manner with the cooperation of all actors involved, in order to permanently stamp out existing conflicts and create an environment in which further violence and conflict will not emerge. In particular, existing capacity and structures for re-establishing the Rule of Law in post-conflict situations, should be reviewed. The European Union looks forward to the Secretary General's report on Justice and the Rule of Law in this respect.

Mr. Chairman,

We call on all Member States to implement Security Council Resolution 1325 to increase the representation of women in peacekeeping operations and to provide gender expertise in the planning for and implementation of all multidimensional peacekeeping operations. Gender mainstreaming in peacekeeping operations, as well as in the functions of the DPKO, is a priority issue for the European Union. In this regard, we welcome the work the DPKO Gender Adviser is taking forward to mainstream best practice on gender issues within missions. We endorse the Secretary General's request that the post of Personnel Conduct Officer be created in each mission, so that cases of misconduct, including sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of women, may be more effectively monitored and acted upon. We also encourage greater transparency between DPKO and Troop Contributing Countries on cases of misconduct.

The European Union reiterates its request of last year that the Secretariat consider affording the privileges and immunities equivalent to those of armed military personnel to civilian police and corrections personnel who are directly assigned executive tasks requiring enforcement measures.

The European Union again urges the Secretariat, in investigating cases of alleged misconduct, to involve the contributing country from the outset, and requests that the outcome of the investigation be made available to the judicial authorities of that country.

The European Union, in the context of the establishment of a single multidimensional training unit in DPKO, welcomes the setting-up of the Working Group and urges the Secretariat to make more progress on the finalisation of this initiative.

In conclusion, we welcome the improved interaction between DPKO and Troop Contributing Countries. We hope that this development will greatly assist our joint endeavours to meet the significant challenges ahead.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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• EU Presidency Statement - Administrative and Budgetary Aspects of Financing of Peacekeeping Operations (17/3/2004)