Sumario: EU Presidency Statement - Financing of UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) (1 November 2005: New York)
EU Presidency Statement on Item 151: Financing of the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), by the Permanent Mission of the United Kingdom to the United Nations on behalf of the European Union, Fifth Committee, United Nations, New York
I am speaking on behalf of the European Union. The Acceding Countries Bulgaria and Romania, the Candidate Countries Turkey and Croatia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, EFTA country Norway, member of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine align themselves with this declaration.
We would like to thank Mr Warren Sach, Controller, and Mr Rajat Saha, Acting Chairman of the ACABQ for introducing their respective reports. We commend the ACABQ for their thorough analysis of the budget, their comprehensive comments, and recommendations for savings amounting to $48.1m.
Given the enormity of the task facing the United Nations in Sudan, and the difficulty of the operating environment, the EU should like to take this opportunity to offer its appreciation to all military and civilian personnel operating in Sudan. We trust that their tireless efforts will succeed in bringing peace, stability and development to a country which has faced unrest for too long.
The EU welcomes the attempt by the Mission to portray clearly in the budget submission their detailed requirements - not an easy task in a mission this large. We also welcome UNMIS' comments, contained in Section V of the budget document, in response to previous ACABQ/General Assembly concerns about structure, gradings and air operations which will help guide our deliberations.
Security Council resolution 1590 gave UNMIS the lead role in co-ordinating all activities of the UN in Sudan. It is only right that the UN should effectively be operating as one entity in the country. Only in this way can resources and efforts be maximised for the greatest benefit. We would, therefore, welcome clarification that there is indeed a clear delineation of roles and functions between UNMIS and other UN entities on the ground. We would also welcome clarification of how the two Deputy
Resident Co-ordinators/Humanitarian Co-ordinators positions are funded. It would be useful if representatives of the other major UN organisations in Sudan could be available during our informal deliberations to answer questions about the nature of integration within Sudan.
The EU is fully aware of the operational requirements for two distinct headquarters, as well as a number of regional and sub-regional offices. In this respect, we note the unique organisational structure of the Mission. We do, however, share the views expressed by the ACABQ about the need for the numbers and levels of posts to be kept under review taking into account experience gained. While we applaud a greater use of national staff and the long-term capacity building impact that should have,
we consider that a greater number of offices should not necessarily be accompanied by a proliferation of civilian staff in areas such as support services, language assistants and drivers. We will explore this, and other staffing issues, further in our informal discussions, as well as seek confirmation that delegation of authority to staff in regional offices has been matched by the application of strong accountability measures.
As we would have expected in a country the size of Sudan, the amount budgeted for air services is large. While the EU would not seek to deprive any Peacekeeping Operation of essential operational assets such as air services, we do encourage the maximum sharing of regional assets, especially given that so many PKOs are now in neighbouring countries. This has worked well already in West Africa, and we would expect that, where feasible, such a sharing of assets should be instituted between UNMIS,
MONUC, UNMEE and ONUB.
The EU should like to reiterate its strong support for Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration programmes as part of wider-UN activities in post-conflict areas. We recall well our discussions in May in respect of DDR and that, in the cross-cutting resolution, we set firm parameters for those activities to be funded from assessed budgets. Given all this, we are puzzled as to why ACABQ was not satisfied with the explanations it received in respect of the $12.7m budgeted for DDR activities.
We would welcome a clarification from the Acting Chair of ACABQ on this issue.
In closing the EU stands ready to engage constructively in informal negotiations to ensure that UNMIS is given adequate resources in order for it to carry out fully its mandate.
Thank you.
* Croatia continues to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.
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