EU Presidency Statement - Peacekeeping Operations

Mr Chairman,

I am speaking on behalf of the EU. 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 Norway, members of the European Economic Area, align themselves with this declaration.

The EU welcomes these new Peacekeeping Operations and strongly supports their actions. By approving these budgets in the form before us we have given the Secretariat, and each PKO, the financial and human resources, and the utmost flexibility, needed to carry out fully and efficiently the mandates of the missions. We trust the SG, when filling the posts identified by the GA, will bear in mind the observations and recommendations of the ACABQ, as well as the views of all Member States concerning the appropriate levels required for the effective and efficient functioning of the missions.

We place great confidence in the thorough work of, and the reports produced by, the ACABQ in respect of PKO budgets. We will continue to use their comments and recommendations as our guidelines for discussions and ultimately, decisions, on PKO budgets. In the case of MINUSTAH for instance and the $9.3m allotted for the remediation of the effects of Hurricane Jeanne, we hold that the utmost budgetary rigour be applied in its use. We look forward to receiving a detailed account of the disbursement of these funds in the next performance report for the mission.

As will have been apparent throughout our recent discussions we have concerns about the way in which the "template" has been implemented in the most recently established PKOs. While, in principle, we support such a template we agree fully with the statements made by the representative of the African group, and the comments of the ACABQ, that the template must be applied in a very flexible manner. We remain strongly of the view that the use of the template must not lead to over or lax budgeting procedures, nor arbitrary inflation in the gradings of posts. Our continued acceptance of the use of the template is wholly dependent on the SG being able to justify fully all positions, especially those at senior levels, within a PKO. In this context, coherence and co-ordination with other humanitarian actors of the UN in the field - with their respective means and personnel - are in our view essential to the cost-effective and efficient discharge of a PKO's mandate. We will pursue this closely in the context of the budgets of all PKOs, and in the cross-cutting resolution, next May.

We look forward to the outcome of the reviews, as mandated by the GA and recommended by ACABQ, of the staffing and structure of new missions, and the management structures of existing missions. While we understand that the latter request might put pressure on the Secretariat we do not consider the timing too onerous: indeed, we would expect the Secretariat to review and justify the resource requirements of all PKOs throughout the budgeting process. What has been requested by the GA should simply be an extrapolation of that ongoing review process.

Thank you.

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