EU Presidency Statement - Pattern of conferences

Mr. Chairman,

I have the honor to speak on behalf of the European Union. The countries of Central and Eastern Europe associated with the European Union (Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia), the associated countries of Cyprus, Malta and Turkey and an EFTA country belonging to the European Economic Area (Norway), align themselves with this statement.

Allow me to congratulate the Chairman of the Committee on Conferences, Mr. Abdelmalek Bouheddou, on the Committee's work and his excellent guidance. Permit me to thank him, as well as the Under-Secretary-General Jian Chen and Ambassador Mselle, for their reports.

Mr. Chairman,

The European Union notes with satisfaction the recommendations and comments contained in the Committee's report and in the ACABQ's report.

It attributes particular importance to optimum use of the conference services and facilities, the quality of which is essential for the high level of the Organization's work. It notes that the rate of use of conference services for the year 2000 is generally higher then 80% and that the efforts to make optimum use of all the conference centers must continue.

The European Union would recall the importance it attributes to strict compliance with meeting hours, the limit on the duration of meetings in accordance with the recommendation contained in paragraph 33 of the report of the Committee on Conferences, and the limitation on speaking time adopted by the General Assembly in its document A/56/250, in accordance with paragraph 22 of the Annex to resolution 51/241 and with rules 72 and 114 of the Rules of Procedure of the General Assembly. It would also express its keen interest in the timely circulation of documents in accordance with the six-week rule, and would encourage the Secretary-General to take the necessary measures to achieve this, and particularly the timely submission of documents by the originating departments.

The European Union would point to the importance it gives to respecting the Orthodox Good Friday, in accordance with the relevant dispositions of resolutions 54/248 and 55/222.

The European Union is concerned at the persistence of excessive vacancy rates in certain postings and would urge that measures be taken to remedy this situation, in particular application of resolution 55/258.

With regard to remote interpretation, the European Union would reiterate that a major impetus must be provided in this area, particularly as this could provide an answer to the recurrent problem of excessive travel costs of interpreters. It invites the Secretary-General to continue with remote interpretation, and to make systematic use of new technologies in order to assist interpreters in adapting to new working conditions. It would, in particular, ask the Secretariat to carry out an exhaustive comparison of the costs of remote interpretation with traditional interpreting methods, properly quantifying all the costs.

The European Union is surprised at the lack of information on the development of remote translation, videoconferencing and voice-recognition systems. Here, too, a major impetus should be provided.

With regard to the electronic documentation transmission system, the European Union welcomes its successful implementation and the forthcoming total accessibility of the system in the six official languages of the Organization.

The European Union continues to set great store by the objective of developing, updating and enhancing the Organization's websites in several languages, aimed at modular parity between the various official languages, which should be achieved economically.

Lastly, the European Union wishes to explore the possibility of restructuring proceedings under this item on the agenda of the Fifth Commission.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

| Top |

• EU Presidency Statement - Pattern of Conferences (13/10/2004)