EU Presidency Statement - Financing of UNAMSIL and UNOCI

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, Liechtenstein and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, align themselves with this statement.

Mr. Chairman,

First, let me thank the director of the Peacekeeping Finance Division, Ms. Catherine Pollard and the vice-chairman of the ACABQ for their introduction of the report before us.

At the outset, the European Union recalls the general points of policy made in its statement on the financing of peacekeeping operations delivered on Thursday 7 October under the agenda items 129 and 155 Financing of UNMISET and MINUSTAH, respectively.

Mr. Chairman,

The European Union supports the comments made by the ACABQ on ONUCI and commends the Secretariat for its use of the RBB framework for this Mission.

In line with Security Council resolution 1528 (2004), we welcome any regional co-operation between the UN Missions in Western Africa to share logistic and administrative support including regional training activities and encourage the Secretariat to explore these issues further. A regional approach for training using in-house expertise from the Missions could help reduce the need for consultants.

The European Union sees employment of National staff in the Mission as an important issue. We understand the difficulties with regard to finding candidates compatible with the mission requirements at this stage. Nevertheless, we encourage the Secretariat to sustain its efforts to pursue this issue in the coming budgeting period.

As also stated in our statement on MINUSTAH on 7 October 2004 and on ONUB on 13 October 2004, we are concerned about replication of functions from other offices in the Mission in the office of the SRSG.

The European Union fully supports the ACABQ comments on the number of posts and recognises the requirements of this Mission and the need for the SRSG to have staff at the appropriate level to perform the functions facing the Mission. We seek further justification from the Secretariat on this issue.

Mr. Chairman,

The European Union supports the comments made by the ACABQ on UNAMSIL.

We note that the Force commander and Deputy Force Commander levels have been downgraded from ASG to D2 and D2 to D1, respectively, in line with the decrease in number of troops.

We note with concern the erosion of experienced staff from UNAMSIL to other peacekeeping Missions in the region. The European Union places great importance on a well-planned and well-executed exit-strategy for which competent and experienced staff are required. We urge the Secretariat to ensure adequate staffing in the Mission in its winding up activities.

We also welcome for this Mission any regional co-operation between the UN missions in Western Africa.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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