EU-UN: Strengthening administrative cooperation between EU Commission and United Nations

Following is a joint communiqué by Siim Kallas, Vice-President of the European Commission, and Mark Malloch Brown, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, issued today.

Vice-President Siim Kallas, Commissioner in charge of administrative affairs, audit and anti-fraud, and Mr Mark Malloch-Brown, Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, have today exchanged letters to formalise the ongoing administrative cooperation between the UN Secretariat and the European Commission on a range of issues in the administrative field.

Both organisations face similar challenges, such as recruiting and managing a diverse multinational staff, and of planning, controlling and auditing programmes in an organisational structure with complex governance systems. The process formalised in letters exchanged today, which was initiated by a common communiqué in May 2006^[1] seeks to share best practice and experience gained by each organisation across a broad range of activities linked to administration and accountability, including issues as planning and budget management, human resources management, procurement, internal controls, audit, investigations, and ethics. The intention is to leverage each institution's experience in management reform to facilitate their adaptation to evolving challenges.

In order to structure the cooperation to ensure the development of long term relations between the two institutions, a contact point has been nominated charged with further development and implementation of this arrangement. For the Commission, the contact point is the Director General for Personnel and Administration, Mr Claude Chene, and for the UN, Mr Christopher Burnham, Under Secretary General for Administration.

Annual meetings between the UN Deputy Secretary General and the Vice-President Siim Kallas will furthermore be held in order to improve coordination, strengthen cooperation and to monitor and evaluate the implementation of joint activities and exchanges. These meetings will take place in turn in New York and Brussels, with the first meeting planned for February 2007.

After testing this initial dialogue, the participation of the UN Funds and Programmes, in the context of the FAFA^[2] agreement, is envisaged.

^[1] IP/06/662.

^[2] The Financial and Administrative Framework Agreement between the European Community and the United Nations signed on 29 April 2003 by Deputy Secretary General Fréchette and Commissioner Nielson.

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