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Description of Delegation's work in Geneva

Head of Delegation: Ambassador Eckart Guth

The importance of Geneva has been underlined by the visits of several high-level European Commission figures in 2001, including President Prodi and Commissioners Bolkenstein, Byrne, Diamantopoulou, Lamy, Monti and Nielson. These visits were reciprocated by the visits of Mr. Lubbers (UNHCR), Mr. Kellenberger (ICRC), Ms Hübner (ECE), Mrs. Brundtland (WHO), Mr. Somavia (ILO) and Mr. Mountain (Head Office of OCHA Geneva) to Brussels.

Human Rights (HR) - The Office of the High Commissioner for HR (OHCHR)

Respect for human rights is a guiding principle of EU external policies as expressed in the EC-ACP (African, Caribbean, Pacific) Cotonou Partnership Agreement. The European Union (EU) is very active during the annual session of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), presenting or sponsoring each year several country- or issue-orientated human rights resolutions. In particular, the EC follows human rights in the economic and development field. The European Union - including the European Commission - participates actively in the session of the Working Group on the Right to Development, often working as a bridge builder with the developing world.

The EC is financing several human rights projects in the world in close cooperation with the Office of Mrs. Robinson (the OHCHR). For example, the EC was the main sponsor of the World Conference against Racism (WCR) and its preparatory process where the resulting Declaration and Programme of Action from Durban, South Africa in September 2001 was achieved largely due to the efforts of the EU Presidency. Since 2000, a structured dialogue on EC cooperation and funding has taken place with Mrs. Robinson's Office, contributing to more predictable and better programming of EC contributions to the OHCHR.

Humanitarian Issues

The EC and the UN are making impressive progress in the humanitarian field. The EC Communication of May 2001 on EC relations with the UN in the field of development and humanitarian affairs aims to build partnerships and to provide more predictability in EC contributions to strategic UN partners. Noticeable improvement of EC-UN Agency cooperation took place during 2001, particularly with UNHCR. The very first High Level EU/EC - Heads of UN Agency meeting took place in Geneva as well. The idea of strategy dialogues, launched under French EU Presidency between ECHO (the European Community Humanitarian Office) and UN partners - including the Red Cross family - also took place in Brussels in 2000 and 2001. The Afghanistan crisis has reinforced the cooperation between the EC and the humanitarian actors in Geneva, both from the UN and the Red Cross family of which the EC is a major donor as well. The EC Delegation also works closely with the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Head Office in Geneva.

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• UNHCR - United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
  

The EC is the third largest donor to UNHCR. Recently, there have been marked efforts by UNHCR to reform itself. This has been coupled with increased cooperation with the EC so that it can provide more stable, substantial and predictable funding for UNHCR. The EC participates actively at the annual Executive Committee meeting, at Standing Committee sessions, at Global Consultations on asylum policy and at other gatherings between UNHCR and major donors.

The EC has an excellent relationship with UNHCR on issues of legal protection of refugees (such as asylum), which have been backed by an exchange of letters between European Commissioner Vitorino and the High Commissioner. In 2001, during the Global Consultations, the EU Presidency delivered common EU statements highlighting the EU's progress in the asylum field. There is a close convergence between policy developments at the global level and the common European asylum policy. In December 2001, a Ministerial meeting took place in Geneva - with the participation of Commissioner Vitorino - to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention.

Development Matters: UNCTAD - UN Conference on Trade and Development

The European Commission worked closely together with UNCTAD for the preparations of the Third UN Conference on the LDC (Least Developed Countries), which took place in May 2001 in Brussels. The EC's "Everything But Arms" initiative, which opens EU markets to the LDC´s, contributed greatly to the Conference's successful outcome. The EC contributed 7 million euro to the event's organization. Even though only an Observer, the European Commission is the single biggest contributor to UNCTAD's Trust Fund for technical assistance.

Commissioner Mario Monti visited UNCTAD in Geneva during 2001 to hold discussions on Competition and Development. He delivered the message that competition law is not a luxury for developing countries, and that it would be to their advantage to introduce it in their development process earlier rather than later. This debate proved useful for furthering competition issues at the WTO.

UN/ECE - Economic Commission for Europe

The Economic Commission for Europe is actively involved in the elaboration of Conventions, Norms and Standards in the fields of trade, transport and the environment. This assists the process of convergence of Central European and CIS countries practices with those of the EU. Other UN Regional Commissions model or copy them in such fields as trade facilitation standards (UN/EDIFACT - UN Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport), agricultural standards, transport facilitation (international truck transportation, cross-border operations, infrastructure) and environment (air pollution, accidents, impact assessment and access to information). Recently, the UN/ECE organized the Regional Preparatory Meeting for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, where the European Commission played an active role in promoting the EU agenda for the Johannesburg meeting.

ILO - International Labour Organisation

The EC has a long history of close cooperation with ILO. An earlier cooperation agreement concluded during Jacques Delors' European Commission Presidency was revised in May 2001 by a Memorandum of Understanding between European Commissioner Diamantopoulou and ILO Director-General Somavia to take into account the major discussion on the social implications of globalization. Several ILO projects enjoy EC co-financing. The European Union and European Commission were particularly active in the discussions on the Measures against Burma/Myanmar because of that country's violation of ILO rules - a first in ILO history. Also the ILO Working Party on the Social Dimension of Globalization, supported by the EC and EU Member States agreed in June 2001 to conduct a permanent High Level Forum as an ILO contribution to an integrated policy framework. This was a major contribution for consideration of this issue within the WTO context. It coincided with the timely adoption by the European Commission of its Communication on Core Labor Standards and Social Governance in the context of Globalization in 2001. The EC also co-finances some ILO activities, such as an IPEC (International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labor) project in Pakistan.

WHO - World Health Organization

The EC cooperates closely with the WHO on the issues of the Tobacco Control Convention and on communicable diseases (AIDS/HIV) within the context of poverty reduction, especially the issue of access of medicines. The EC and the WHO concluded an exchange of letters in 2001 to strengthen and increase cooperation, dialogue and coordination. On the Convention on Tobacco Control, for the first time in history, negotiations are taking place on a legally binding instrument in the WHO with negotiating powers conferred to the European Commission on behalf of the EU. This has implications on other EC policies, such as agriculture, taxation, development and the fight against smuggling. As to access to medicines, this was dealt with extensively by the WHO, as well as by UNAIDS, in preparation for the UN General Assembly Special Session on AIDS Conference in New York in 2001. This is an issue which involves human rights (access to care and treatment as a basic human right), the World Trade Organization (WTO) (in relation to the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement) and development (the setting up of a Global Fund), where the EU and European Commission is very much involved. This led to the adoption of an Action Plan on major communicable diseases.

The WHO plays a growing role on a number of subjects of direct relevance to EU policy agenda: food safety, health and trade, mental health, the fight against communicable diseases and building health infrastructure.

WIPO - World Intellectual Property Organization

The EC works closely together with WIPO in all matters to promote the protection of intellectual property worldwide. In December 2000 the EC, together with the French EU Presidency at that time, took part in the negotiations at the Diplomatic Conference on the Protection of Audiovisual Performances at WIPO.

Other International Organizations in Geneva and their cooperation with the EU/EC

The EC and the International Telecommunication Union. (ITU) are working closely together to prepare for the World Summit on the Information Society (Geneva 2003 and Tunisia 2005), an area where the EC is a very active player. Contacts also took place in 2001 between European Commission President Prodi and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The Conference on Disarmament (CD), the world's principal multilateral disarmament negotiating forum, is also very important.

The UNEP Regional Office for Europe hosts the secretariat of several important Multilateral Environment Agreements (MAE) such as CITES (trade in endangered species), Basel (hazardous waste) and Rotterdam (chemicals); it is also active on policy analysis of trade and environment. There is also close contact with UPU - the Universal Postal Union (a UN Specialized Agency dealing with international postal relations) located in Bern; IBE- the International Bureau of Education (an Information Center for UNESCO Member States on all educational matters); UNAIDS - a UN inter-agency program on HIV/AIDS; and GIHD the Geneva Center for Humanitarian Demining.

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