EU and UN strengthen partnership

EU Commissioner for Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid Poul Nielson and Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Louise Fréchettehave signed today in New York an updated Financial and Administrative Framework Agreement (FAFA), designed to facilitate a closer partnership between the two bodies. This Agreement will pave the way for a closer strategic partnership between the EC and the UN in the fields of development and humanitarian aid, lowering costs for projects and programmes.

Commented Commissioner Nielson at the signing ceremony: "The European Union and the United Nations are close and natural partners in promoting development and humanitarian relief all over the world. It is with great satisfaction that I note we have come a long way to facilitate co-operation at the technical level between our two institutions."

Initially concluded in 1999, the FAFA manages the way in which European Commission funds are handled by the UN system. The Agreement has been reviewed to address shortcomings in the original 1999 Agreement, which was considered too limiting. A driving force behind the changes is a joint wish between the EU and UN to see joint co-operation expand, and to make funding by the European Commission of UN operations and programmes at the technical level less cumbersome. The new Agreement provides the two sides with an improved tool in their joint efforts to strengthen global governance and the multilateral institutions.

The strategic partnerships will involve a closer programming dialogue between the European Commission and the UN, and more long-term financing in the case of development programmes. Concretely, the FAFA will lower the transaction costs of joint projects or programmes, thereby helping the institutions to make better use of their resources for development and humanitarian relief to benefit those in need. By increasing the predictability of the rules to be applied for all parties concerned (the EU, the UN, other donors and the beneficiary country), it will contribute to greater transparency and greater impact of the operations on the ground.

Among the principles revised in the Agreement are those of moving from project funding to more long-term programme funding; to shift from a focus on inputs to one based on outputs and results; to strengthen the visibility of EU as a donor, and to clarify and simplify rules on reporting. Yearly consultations will be held to identify ways of further fine-tuning the performance of the agreement.

The Agreement will be implemented at the contractual level by way of two standard contribution agreements, one for humanitarian aid, and one for all other Commission grants.

Similar Agreements that exist with a number of UN specialised agencies (FAO, UNESCO and WHO) will also be reviewed. These and other specialised UN agencies will be invited to accede to the new agreement and to incorporate its principles to the greatest extent possible, in order to facilitate funding of their operations and programmes.


Press contact: Christoper Matthews (1212) 401-0134


More details can be found on our website at the following address:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/humanitarian_aid/index_en.htm

http://europa.eu.int/comm/development/index_en.cfm

| Arriba |

• EU-UN: Strengthening administrative cooperation between EU Commission and United Nations  (3/10/2006)