Summary: EU Presidency Statement - United Nations system-wide coherence in areas of development, humanitarian assistance and environment (April 16, 2007: New York)
Statement on behalf of the European Union, by the German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Ms. Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, on the occasion of the Follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit: report of the Secretary-General "Recommendations contained in the report of the high-level panel on United Nations system-wide coherence in the areas of development, humanitarian assistance and the environment" in the UN General Assembly, New York
Madam President,
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union.
The Candidate Countries Turkey, Croatia* and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,* the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and the EFTA Country Iceland, member of the European Economic Area as well as Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova align themselves with this declaration.
Madam President,
The EU thanks the Secretary-General for sharing his views and suggestions on the Report of the High-level Panel on United Nations System-wide Coherence with the member states. We are grateful for this leadership. The EU also thanks the President of the General Assembly for opening the debate on the High-level Panel's Report. We are looking forward to working with her, the Secretary-General and the Deputy Secretary-General most constructively.
The EU sees the United Nations system of operational activities as unique in that its mandate includes poverty eradication, sustainable development, conflict prevention, post conflict rehabilitation and peace building. The UN's universal membership, neutrality and political independence enables it to play a positive role in providing support to developing countries in all of these areas to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and other internationally agreed development goals and to
implement the Millennium Declaration.
The EU considers effective multilateralism, with a strong UN at its heart, to be a central element of its external action. The reform process of the United Nations' development cooperation therefore has always been an important issue for the EU. A more effective and efficient UN will be an even more important partner in ensuring that development assistance delivers results and accelerates progress towards the Millennium Development Goals and other internationally agreed development goals.
The EU agrees with the Panel that the UN's operational activities at country level need to be further strengthened and better coordinated. The EU also concurs with the Panel's vision of "delivering as one". It is important to bring together the UN's normative, analytic and operational expertise at country level in order to improve the effectiveness and visibility of the UN's operational development activities and to generate substantial benefits for the UN's partner countries. The Panel's
proposal of the "four ones" (one programme, one leader, one budgetary framework and, where appropriate, one office) offer a good starting point. In this context, the EU remains committed to the reform process.
The "one-country-programme approach" will be a challenge for UN organisations, recipient and donor countries alike, but the EU believes it is worthwhile to meet this challenge. In line with the principle of country-ownership, the one country programmes will have to derive from and respond to the needs and priorities of the partner countries. The EU also welcomes the establishment of the "One UN" country pilots which we hope will show to UN membership the potential of this new approach.
The Panel's recommendations to further bolster the resident coordinator system, which build upon the UN Member States consensus reached in the Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review process to strengthen the resident coordinator system, offer sensible solutions.
The EU considers the issue of funding for the UN's operational activities as a key question of which the member states must remain seized, with the objective of ensuring multi-year, adequate, predictable and timely core funding. Improving the balance between core and non-core resources should strengthen the efficiency and effectiveness of the UN at country level.
The reform of the governance structures at various levels and harmonised business practices are other important issues for consideration as they are both necessary for clear and transparent oversight and accountability.
The EU expects that future discussions on the Panel's recommendations concerning institutional changes, in particular the creation of new bodies will be carefully considered in view of their added value and take into account the need to assess the implementation of recent decisions on the reform of ECOSOC.
The EU agrees with the Panel that human rights should be an integral part of UN activities. The EU therefore attaches great importance to the discussion on how to integrate the human rights based approach to programming in UN operational activities.
Gender equality and women's empowerment are important cross-cutting issues and are therefore to be fully integrated, applied and adequately resourced within the international community's efforts towards achieving sustainable development. The EU underlines the importance that the UN gender architecture needs to be strengthened, with a view to both normative and operative concerns in line with the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace
and Security. The EU therefore welcomes that deficiencies arising from the current system fragmentation of the gender architecture are being addressed in the report. The EU also agrees with the Panel that the commitment to gender equality should remain a mandate of the entire UN system.
The UN's environmental activities and the system of international environmental governance need to be strengthened further. Environmental considerations must also be better intergrated in the UN´s operational activities in the field. The EU welcomes the Panel's call for further coordination among the relevant UN agencies in the field of environment and to upgrade the United Nations Environment Programme and feels encouraged to work for the establishment of a UN Organization for the environment,
based on UNEP, with a revised and strengthened mandate, supported by stable, adequate and predictable financial contributions and operating on an equal footing with other UN specialized agencies.
The leading role of the UN in the co-ordination and its substantive contributions to implementing humanitarian assistance must be further enhanced to improve the collective response to meeting the needs of the victims of humanitarian crises. The Panel's recommendations for strengthening UN's capacity and full funding of the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) underpin the current reform process of the humanitarian system. The EU is committed to further support this reform process. The EU
also supports the Panel´s important recommendations related to the need to clarify mandates for better cooperation on internally displaced persons, UNDP´s leadership in early recovery and the need to enhance UN´s efforts in the area of disaster risk reduction. Coherence also in the global development architecture needs to be improved, not least between the UN and the Bretton Woods Institutions.
The EU considers it important to engage all UN Member States and other stakeholders in a transparent, constructive and open discussion of the report's recommendations. In this context, the EU agrees with the Secretary General that the proposals of the report should be considered and taken forward within ongoing reform processes, for example using the existing process dealing with UN reform issues in the area of environment. Another forum for consideration of the Panel's recommendations is the
forthcoming Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review of operational activities for development of the United Nations system (TCPR). For practical reasons we suggest to proceed in thematic tracks. In this context we need to discuss the best procedure for those recommendations that are not already covered by the existing reform processes, for instance the recommendations regarding gender and governance.
The EU looks forward to discussing constructively with all member states the Panel's recommendations in order to improve the UN's ability to assist countries in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and other internationally agreed development goals.
Thank you, Madam President.
* Croatia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.
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