EU Presidency Statement - Pattern of Conferences

Mr. Chairman,

I have the honour to speak 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 countries Iceland and Liechtenstein, members of the European Economic Area, align themselves with this declaration.

We thank the representatives of the Secretariat, the ACABQ and the Joint Inspection Unit for the introduction of their reports. First of all, the European Union would like to commend the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management for the excellent arrangements made for the General Debate at the beginning of this year's General Assembly. We are looking forward to comparably good service during the rest of this General Assembly.

The provision of conference services is instrumental in the success of our work in the intergovernmental organs and expert bodies of the United Nations. The international and universal character of this work requires equal treatment for all official languages, which we consider a high priority. At the same time, the required resources represent a substantial share of the regular budget. For these reasons, the EU places great value on the principles of effectiveness, efficiency and quality of conference services.

Mr. Chairman,

Allow me to thank the Chairman of the Committee on Conferences, Mr. Enno Drofenik, for introducing the report of the Committee contained in document A/59/32. The European Union warmly welcomes this report, and the annexed draft resolution. We are confident that this draft resolution, which has been agreed upon by the Committee on Conferences, will substantially facilitate the work of the Fifth Committee on this issue during this session .

The report itself contains many elements that move in a positive, forward-looking direction. Allow me to point, for instance, to the consultations of the Chairman of the Committee with those bodies that consistently under-utilize their allocated resources, as a useful mechanism for ensuring better use of available conference services.

The European Union welcomes the progress made by the Secretariat with regard to the reform of the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management. The introduction of e-Meets, the Electronic Meetings Planning and Resources Allocation System and the progress made with e-Doc, the Electronic Documentation Management Concept, are valuable steps in the right direction. Furthermore the EU is looking forward to the completion of the global study of integrated management of conference services and the study on workload standards and performance measurements. With a view to enhancing the provision of summary records we support the formulation of pilot-projects for a more efficient and cost-effective delivery.

When it comes to the management of documentation the constant challenge that the Secretariat is facing is to improve the quality of documents and their timely issuance while delivering them in the most efficient and cost-effective manner. Much progress has been made by the Secretariat, in particular through the strict implementation of the slotting system, the electronic transmission of documents and printing on demand. However, there is still room for improvement and the EU urges the Secretariat to ensure the timely issuance of documents. The negative impact of the late or non-availability of key documentation on the functioning of intergovernmental and expert bodies cannot be underestimated.

Mr. Chairman,

The European Union attaches great importance to the revitalisation of the General Assembly, and notes with appreciation that the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management has been particularly active in this regard, for instance through its commendable support to the President of the fifty-eighth General Assembly and to the work of the open-ended General Committee.

In GA resolution 58/316 on the revitalisation of the General Assembly, the Main Committees of the General Assembly have been mandated to give specific attention to the rationalisation of their agendas by the biennialisation, triennialisation, clustering and elimination of items and to make recommendations to the plenary by 1 April 2005. With a view to this mandate the European Union considered carefully the proposed biennialization of the agenda item "Pattern of Conferences". The risks associated with this step seem minimal. The substantial increase in the profile of the Committee on Conferences would, however, be marked, while its annual meeting period would be maintained. At the same time, great advantages regarding sensible division of labour and lessening of the work load in the Fifth Committee could be achieved, while giving the Secretariat more time to analyse and assess new and emerging trends.

Mr. Chairman,

The European Union stands ready to consider positively the adoption of the draft resolution elaborated by the Committee on Conferences, in the expectation that it will guide the Department to becoming an even more responsive, productive, efficient and useful partner to all Member States and entities of the Organisation.

I thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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• EU Presidency Statement - Pattern of conferences (21/10/2002)
• EU Presidency Statement - Pattern of conferences (23/10/2001)