EU-UN - A natural partnership

Summary: January 30, 2004: Visit of United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan to Brussels and the EU institutions (New York)

A natural partnership: Kofi Annan visits the EU

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan's visit to Brussels and the EU institutions this week, which included a meeting with the entire Commission, with High Representative Javier Solana, and the award of the Sakharov Prize from the European Parliament, came at a timely moment in EU-UN relations.

An unprecedented meeting

The Secretary General's unprecedented meeting with the full College reflects the renewed importance attached by both institutions to their evolving relationship. In recent years, a steady increase of interaction and co-operation has taken place, making the EU overall, and the Commission in particular, a key strategic partner for the United Nations. Working through the UN is an explicit EU priority. The meeting gave the Commission the opportunity to demonstrate its own commitment to the UN, and to express its full support for the reform and strengthening of the UN in order to protect and promote the organisation's unique role in seeking multilateral solutions to global problems.

The logic behind EU-UN partnership is plain to see. When the United Nations declared its first aim as nothing less than the maintenance of international peace and security, it was clear that the terms of its Charter were rooted as much in ideals to be striven for as in tasks to be completed. The EU began from these same ideals, but has benefitted through the years from the very concrete process of economic integration - a step by step project which simultaneously reflects and deepens interdependence between nation states. Both organisations are founded on the same core principle: international co-operation is an essential prerequisite if common challenges are to be effectively, and equitably, tackled.

Unswerving commitment

The EU makes many major concrete contributions to the UN. It works with all UN bodies, agencies and programmes across the entire range of UN activities, from development policy and peace-making to humanitarian assistance, environment, human rights and culture, throughout the world.

In recent years, cooperation between the two entities has not only increased in volume, but has also moved from largely ad hoc arrangements to more formal operational frameworks and strategic partnerships, especially in the fields of development and humanitarian affairs and crisis management and conflict prevention. The central importance of effective multilateralism was most recently underlined by its selection as one of three key objectives in the new European Security Strategy.

Moreover, the soon-to-be EU25 is by far the largest financial contributor to the UN system, paying some 38% of the UN's regular budget, more than two fifths of UN peacekeeping operations and around half of all UN Member States' contributions to UN funds and programmes. Direct financial support from the European Commission has also increased over the last several years, averaging around EUR 300 million annually.

Shared priorities for the future

In the wake of the Iraq crisis and in the face of current threats as diverse as terrorism and global warming, the EU has once again reaffirmed the need to embrace multilateral approaches to global problems. The European Commission is convinced that by working more effectively with and through the UN, the EU can strengthen its position as a central pillar of the multilateral system. As Chris Patten commented recently: "The EU's commitment to a multilateral foreign policy needs to be better reflected in our approach to international institutions, starting with the UN. As the largest financial contributor to the UN, the EU needs to find concrete ways of strengthening our political influence in the UN system."

This was the reasoning behind the Commission's important Communication last autumn - The European Union and the United Nations: The Choice of Multilateralism - which the December 2003 European Council welcomed as "comprehensive", coming at "a dynamic juncture in EU-UN relations". The Communication set out a comprehensive Action Plan designed to ensure that the EU's ability to influence debate at the UN does not lag behind its combined political clout. It will be put into effect on several parallel tracks - from improving internal EU co-ordination on UN questions, to increasing the regularity and depth of contact between Commission and UN headquarter and field staff.

This week's meetings helped both sides further identify how the Commission can best support the continuing positive evolution of EU-UN relations. Kofi Annan's presence at the EU's headquarters bears testament not only to the value placed by the Union on the multilateral dimension of its external policy, but also to the Secretary General's own conviction that the EU will be an indispensable partner in his tireless efforts to revive and modernise the United Nations system.

Chris Matthews & Dominic Porter
Delegation to the UN, New York

Ref: EC04-013EN
EU source: European Commission
UN forum:
Date: 30/1/2004

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