Summary: EU Presidency Statement - Scale of Assessments for apportionment of UN expenses (18 October 2005: New York)
EU Presidency Statement on Item 128: Scale of Assessments for the apportionment of the expenses of the United Nations, by the Permanent Mission of the United Kingdom to the United Nations on behalf of the European Union, Fifth Committee, United Nations, New York
Thank you Mr Chairman. I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union.
The Acceding Countries Bulgaria and Romania, the Candidate Countries Turkey and Croatia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovenia the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, EFTA country Iceland, member of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova align themselves with this declaration.
The European Union is grateful to Mr Ugo Sessi, Chairman of the Committee on Contributions, for presenting the Committee's report of its 65th session in A/60/11. As this is the last time that he will be with us in this capacity, we should like to thank him for his participation over the past 15 years in the Committee on Contributions, wise chairmanship of that body for 5 years, and for his commitment and hard work. We are also grateful to the Controller, Mr Warren Sach, for introducing the
reports of the Secretary-General relating to the Scale of Assessments.
The EU has considered the report of the Committee on Contributions, A/60/11, and the report of the Secretary-General on multi-year payment plans, A/60/66. We can endorse the observations and recommendations in both reports. With regard to the report of the SG on unpaid assessed contributions of the former Yugoslavia, A/60/144, the European Union can support the request made yesterday in the statement of Slovenia (on behalf of the 5 successor States of the Socialist Federative Republic of
Yugoslavia), to defer consideration of this issue to the first resumed session of UNGA 60, in March of 2006. But the European Union wishes to stress that we expect this issue to be resolved definitively at that session.
Mr Chairman, we will comment first on the issues raised in Section IV onwards of the Report of the Committee on Contributions.
The Committee was asked to take an exceptional decision in July during the 59th session with regard to exemptions under Article 19. The EU was prepared to go along with this decision given the exceptional circumstances of the 59th session extending through the summer. But this incident raised certain questions.
First, the question of the information that is submitted to the Committee on Contributions in support of requests for exemption under Article 19 and the timing of such submissions. This has been a persistent problem over the years and has continued despite the GA's decision to respect the necessary deadlines for submission to the CoC. The European Union is concerned that the submission of information requesting exemptions has become an automatic exercise and that there is an expectation that
regardless of what information is submitted or at what time it is submitted, the exemption will be granted. The EU believes that consideration of the justification for application of exemptions should be taken seriously.
The obligation to pay is a Charter obligation. The EU position remains that all Member States should pay their assessed contributions on time, in full, and without conditions. The European Union recognises that in some cases severe circumstances may prevent this: genuine cases must be treated with the respect and sympathy they deserve. But we would ask that full explanations are given to the CoC and that these should be provided within the time specified to allow for adequate consideration. In
this context, we see merit in allowing the Committee on Contributions more time to consider the information by extending the time from two to four weeks. We expect to see recommendations to this effect deriving from the next session of CoC in 2006.
A separate question is whether we should maintain the period for exemptions under Article 19 which is currently until 30 June of the following year from our decision, or should we extend this period to the beginning of the following General Assembly session? The EU is prepared to change the timing to the beginning of the following GA session.
The EU has on many occasions stated its position on measures to address arrears. We are realistic enough to acknowledge that agreement on incentive and disincentive measures is unlikely at the moment and we have taken note of the Committee on Contributions' decision not to consider this issue further without guidance from the GA. Nevertheless, we would encourage Member States to authorise the Secretariat to apply outstanding credits to outstanding assessed contributions. And the EU reserves the
right to return to this issue to ensure that the vast majority of the membership - from all the regions - which does pay promptly is not disregarded by those who cannot or will not do likewise.
As the EU has stated before, the willingness to consider multi-year plans should be a factor in the CoC's consideration of requests for future waivers under Article 19. We understand that it may not be possible for MS in disadvantaged positions to meet all their payment obligations on time but we do believe that an annual payment, even if symbolic, serves to show that all MS take their Charter obligations seriously.
We note with appreciation that Iraq has paid all its arrears, which was a significant sum.
The EU joins the Committee on Contributions in noting with appreciation that the Republic of Moldova has completed payments under its plan and no longer falls under the provisions of Article 19 of the Charter, and that full payments have been made by Georgia, The Niger and Tajikistan in 2004 under their multi-year payment plans, and by Georgia and The Niger in 2005. The EU recognises the considerable efforts made by those Member States to honour their commitments and regrets that no other new
payment plans have been submitted. We would urge MS in arrears to make an effort to present multi-year payment plans to the CoC and to make an effort to keep to them.
Turning to the methodology of future scales of assessments, the General Assembly is expected to give guidance to the Committee on Contributions with a view to the Committee's discussions in June 2006 of the scale of assessment for the period 2007-2009. The European Union share collectively is 37%. Not surprisingly, this is therefore an important issue for us. We will table proposals during informal consultations on elements of the methodology for review including base period, minimum and
maximum rates of assessment, debt burden and mitigation arrangements. This session provides an early opportunity for member states to explore options for review without prejudging the negotiations next year. But we would recall now the EU's long-standing position that the principal element for the methodology should continue to be capacity to pay and that the most accurate reflection of capacity to pay is GNI. There can be no basis for exceptions to those principles.
* Croatia continues to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.
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