EU Presidency Statement - Report of coordination bodies - ECOSOC

Mr. President,

I have the honor to take the floor on behalf of the European Union. The Candidate Countries Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and Croatia, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, and the EFTA country Norway, member of the European Economic Area, align themselves with this declaration.

The EU welcomes this occasion to discuss the Chief Executives Board. We are very pleased with the role it plays in giving coordinated and coherent guidance to the UN system. We welcome the improved report, which also covers the first annual CEB-session of 2004, so that it is completely up to date. We hope this trend will continue and also suggest that in future we discuss CEB during the coordination segment.

• The report demonstrates the complexity of the issues of concern to the CEB, both in the field of programming as well as with regard to ensuring inter-agency coordination in the area of management. The EU appreciates the potential of CEB to meet these challenges. The EU welcomes the attention CEB has paid to supporting NEPAD, dealing with the HIV-AIDS pandemic, conflict prevention and transnational crime. We would also like to stress the crucial role CEB will have in coordinating a system-wide approach towards implementing the outcome of the upcoming Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review.
  
  
• The report on CEB actvities to ECOSOC shows us the important role CEB is playing in following up to the UN summits and conferences, in line with paragraph 12 of General Assembly resolution 57/270 B. We welcome the fact that CEB is actively engaged in shaping a system-wide contribution to the first comprehensive review of the implementation of the Millennium Declaration to be undertaken by the UN General Assembly in 2005, including monitoring of progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. We hope that CEB will continue with the integrated and coordinated follow up of all summits, including those focused on development, social issues and human rights. The agendas of Beijing, Cairo, Vienna, Copenhagen and Rome should not be forgotten.
  
  
• We hope to hear more about the way CEB helps establish better coherence and coordination between specialised agencies and other parts of the UN system. This will be of particular importance as we implement the UN summits and support an enhanced resident coordinator system.
  
  
• CEB is also the appropriate forum for a focus on implementing the Monterrey Consensus, in view of the presence of trade and financial institutions. The work done on sustainable development shows the system is keeping pace with the intergovernmental monitoring of Agenda 21 and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation at CSD. The setting up of UN Water, UN Energy, UN Oceans and the focus on sustainable consumption and production is ample evidence that the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation and the multi-year work programme of the CSD have led to actions. We look forward to discussing the results of these efforts as the CSD work programme is implemented.

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