EU Presidency Statement - Fifth Committee, Estimates in respect of special political missions

Fifth Committee, Resumed Session, Estimates in respect of special political missions, good offices and other political initiatives authorized by the General Assembly and/or Security Council; Statement by Counsellor Enno Drofenik, Austrian Mission to the United Nations, on behalf of the European Union.


Mr. Chairman,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The Acceding Countries Bulgaria and Romania, the Candidate Countries Turkey, Croatia* and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, and the EFTA country Iceland, member of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova align themselves with this declaration.

The EU wishes to thank the representatives of the Secretariat and the ACABQ (Advisory Committee On Administrative and Budgetary Questions) for the presentation of their respective reports. The General Assembly has, of course, already approved resources for the first part of 2006 for SPMs but this is our first detailed consideration of the reports under this item.

The EU recognises the important functions performed by the various special political missions and stands ready to appropriate adequate resources for these. We must also emphasise, however, that we expect the presentation and justification of resource requests for SPMS (Special Political Missions) to be of the same standard as those for Peacekeeping Missions and other regular budget items. In this connection we agree with many of the general comments raised by the ACABQ in their report.

We commend the Secretariat for their increase in the use of the results-based framework and their efforts to provide information on actual and potential synergies and complementarities. There is however more which can be done. We concur with the ACABQ that there is potential for further improvement, in particular, through enhanced coordination and cooperation between missions.

The EU reiterates its support for the aim of improving the presentation and transparency of budgetary information on SPMS and supports in this context the repeated request of the ACABQ that larger missions be treated in a manner suitable to their size and complexity. We also support the recommendation of the ACABQ that thought be given to reorganising the report in order to present mission or offices in clusters on the basis of thematic or regional considerations. The EU believes that such improvements, in the context of a consolidated report on SPMs, would greatly assist the General Assembly in its consideration of these missions.

The EU sees merit in the ACABQ suggestion of a Management Review of SPMs in relation to DPA and considers that this could complement the ongoing OIOS (Office of Internal Oversight Services) evaluation of DPA requested by the CPC.

We will comment on resource-specific issues, including the recommendations of the ACABQ in this regard, in the informal consultations.

Thank you Mr Chairman.

*Croatia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.

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