EU Presidency Statement - Fifth Committee, Investing in the UN

Statement by First Secretary Katja Pehrman, Permanent Mission of Finland to the United Nations, on behalf of the European Union, at the United Nations Fifth Committee; Agenda Items 46, 118, 120, 122, 124, 128, 129 and 136: Investing in the United Nations: for a stronger Organization worldwide, New York

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, the EFTA country Liechtenstein, member of the European Economic Area as well as Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova align themselves with this declaration.

Mr. Chairman,

The European Union welcomes the progress we have made so far in Management Reforms. The Secretary-General's comprehensive reform package "Investing in the United Nations: for a Stronger Organization Worldwide" included several proposals to improve the way the United Nations is working. Today we have adopted some of these.

We consider these initial steps as a useful basis to transform the United Nations into a more efficient and accountable organisation as agreed by our Heads of State and Government at the World Summit 2005.

One of the achievements is the establishment of the post of Chief Information Technology Officer to oversee the creation and implementation of an effective information and communication management strategy for the entire Secretariat.

Another one is a decision to replace Integrated Management Information Systems with a modernised system to ensure that the Organisation provides a high degree of transparency and accountability. We trust that also the adoption of International Public Sector Accounting Standards will result in increased transparency and better management of assets.

We are looking forward to a comprehensive annual report, which will contain both financial and programme information. We welcome more information on the policy for public access to UN documentation to make the Secretariat more open, transparent and accountable.

Additional resources were allocated to implement necessary measures in the ongoing reform of procurement. We trust that the resources adopted today will help the Secretariat to meet the urgent need in this area.

Mr. Chairman,

We should also like to comment on the agreement we have reached on the question of limited discretion for the Secretary-General in budgetary implementation. When the Secretary-General's detailed report on investing in the UN was introduced, the EU highlighted the importance we attached to this issue.

We made clear that we supported the Secretary-General's original proposal and proposed our own variation of this, to authorise and encourage greater redeployment in the Secretariat so that the organisation could respond more swiftly to changing needs and events.

The new mechanism which we have agreed to, on an experimental basis, is much narrower in scope to that which we proposed. We would have been prepared to go substantially further at this time and respond more directly to the SG's own proposals. But we recognise that we have to build a strong foundation of support for greater discretion and ease concerns of partners. We therefore have agreed to start with this much more modest proposal. Given its limited scope, we expect the Secretariat to spare no effort and use this mechanism as fully as possible for tangible results.

However, we do wish to state clearly for the record our understanding of this experiment:

The mechanism we have adopted should allow the Secretary-General to plan on the basis of discretion up to a limit of $20 million. We expect the Secretariat to identify proactively efficiencies and offsets so as to take full advantage of the enhanced discretion. They should not simply wait and see whether savings crop up, or vacant posts are filled less quickly than anticipated.

In addition, the consultation of the ACABQ for use of this discretion over $6 million should not be an onerous burden which will prove a disincentive for the Secretariat to implement it and we hope that a swift and efficient practice can be established for this.

Furthermore, we understand that the experiment will in no way be financed through an addition to the budget either directly or indirectly beyond what is initially agreed at the outset of a biennium, which would fall on member states through current or future additional assessments.

We also expect the SG to continue to use the 50-post redeployment experiment to the full for the remainder of this biennium in parallel with the new experiment. We hope that the report on this experiment which we will consider at the 62nd session

will demonstrate an active and successful use of this form of redeployment, which can help promote greater understanding of the practical benefits to the organisation and confidence that these will be to the benefit of the UN and all of its Member States.
Mr. Chairman,

We have been working intensely on Secretariat and Management Reform during the last weeks but much remains to be done. The European Union is committed to continue consideration of measures to fulfill the commitments made by Heads of State and Government in the World Summit Outcome Document to strengthen the United Nations. In the 61st session we look forward to engaging in discussions on governance, oversight and accountability, human resources management and procurement reform as well as reverting to the issue of consolidation of peacekeeping accounts and related questions.

Like Secretary-General Annan, the European Union believes that "reform is a process, not an event". The EU will continue to work hard and constructively on proposals for a stronger and more effective United Nations.

The European Union wishes to thank the coordinator of this agenda item, Mr. Morteza Mirmohammad of the Islamic Republic of Iran, for engaging himself with the process. His involvement has motivated the Committee on the way forward, day and night. We have appreciated the constructive discussions with all Member States during the negotiations and look forward to future negotiations taking place in the same spirit of cooperation.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

| Arriba |

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• EU Presidency Statement - Fifth Committee, Peacebuilding Support Office  (15/3/2006)
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• EU Presidency Statement - Fifth Committee, Programme of Work  (6/3/2006)
• EU Presidency Statement - Fifth Committee, Joint Inspection Unit (6/3/2006)
• EU Presidency Statement - Fifth Committee: Budgetary Implications for the Human Rights Council - Programme and Budgetary Implications (PBI) (6/3/2006)