EU Presidency Statement - Peacekeeping Financing

Mr. Chairman,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The Central and Eastern European countries associated with the European Union, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, the associated countries, Cyprus, Malta and Turkey, and the EFTA countries belonging to the European Economic Area, Iceland and Norway, align themselves with this statement.

The European Union would like to thank the Controller, Mr. Jean-Pierre Halbwachs for introducing the SG's reports on the individual peacekeeping missions, as well as the related reports. We would also like to thank Mr. Michael Sheenan, Assistant for the Secretary-General for Mission Support, Department of Peacekeeping Operations, on the concept of strategic deployment stocks and its implementation and the United Nations Logistic Base at Brindisi.

We would also like to thank Ambassador Mselle for his introduction of the reports of the ACABQ, and the Director of External Audit of South Africa, Mr Pramesh Bhana, for introducing the report of the Board of Auditors, as well as the Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight, Mr. Dileep Nair, for introducing the reports of his office.

However we would like to express our concern at the late submission of many of these reports, which has limited the time available for in-depth study by delegations. The EU reiterates its request that the competent services of the Secretariat better complies with existing rules.

Mr. Chairman,

The European Union is strongly committed to United Nations peacekeeping, a core function of the Organisation that is vital to the international community, and which has been demonstrated recently by the successes of missions in Sierra Leone and East Timor, and with the operation in the DRC becoming ever more crucial to the stability of that region. We commend all those who everyday risk their lives in the effort to create a more peaceful and secure world. The European Union and Associated countries have over 6000 troops, civilian police and other personnel throughout UN peacekeeping missions, and a collective share of the financing of more than 40% of the peacekeeping budget. This, taken with our contribution to training of peacekeeping personnel, is further testament to our unwavering commitment to this effort.

Maintaining peace and security continues to be a most challenging and crucial task. It is therefore essential that the most effective administrative and financial arrangements for peacekeeping operations be in place, in order to ensure that PKO budgets are prepared in an efficient and cost/effective manner and that the Secretariat is equipped with the resources and capabilities to carry out the Member States' mandates.

Forecasting is crucial to allow Member States to properly plan resource requirements at an early stage. We would like to thank the Secretariat for all their valuable assistance. Last year, the European Union called for a presentation by the Secretariat early in the year, which, inter alia, would outline trends of expected expenditure for peacekeeping operations beyond the subsequent fiscal year for the missions, so as to assist Member States in their planning for adequate budget provisions. We understand that this is not an easy task. A more regularized information on peacekeeping expenses, however, would already greatly help.

Longer term planning involving financial and administrative aspects of peacekeeping must take in to account the need for each mission to have an exit strategy. The EU urges the Secretary General to consider this in the early stages of planning for peacekeeping operations. We also think it appropriate for the Secretary General to consider, where appropriate, aligning the mandates of peacekeeping operations with the peacekeeping financial calendar. This would ease the bureaucratic burden placed on the Secretariat and Member States in carrying out multiple assessments and forecasting for missions mandates outside the peacekeeping fiscal year.

Mr. Chairman,

The EU has always supported measures designed to enhance UN's capability to rapidly deploy peacekeeping operations. The implementation of the Brahimi recommendations is allowing the United Nations to carry out the reforms needed to ensure that the Organisation can deliver what we ask of it. We are therefore pleased with the recommendations of the Special Committee, which form the basis for the discussions of the 5th Committee.

The concept of the Strategic Deployment Stock has been approved by member states. We must now agree the most appropriate way to finance it. The EU is ready to discuss the proposal of the SG to finance the SDS from unencumbered balances from a number of closed missions. The EU supports the Secretary-General's proposal of pre-mandate commitment authority. It is important that the Secretary-General can start the logistical planning, at an early stage and before the mandate is approved by the Security Council. This often includes the initiation of contracting for the procurement of certain essential services relevant to the rapid start up of a mission. For the EU it is not important to change the financial rules and regulations if we can be assured that the Secretary-General has the means within the existing rules to be able to request commitment authority before the approval of the mandate.

Mr. Chairman

We are concerned that ACABQ and the Board of Auditors continue to draw our attention to inadequacies in the management of peacekeeping operations, whether mission specific or, more importantly, of a systemic nature. The EU has voiced its concern in the past at what it sees as the failure of the Organisation to address these concerns quickly and effectively. Let me touch upon some of those issues with which the EU is most concerned:

Military and Civilian Personnel Costs

The EU cannot but concur with ACABQ's reflection on the tendency of some missions to establish separate special units, particularly in established missions. The EU sees little or no added value in the establishment of such units, and regrets being faced with such requests particularly when there is little justification for the posts requested. Where there are large, and sometimes continuing vacancies, we question the need to retain posts for long periods when it is clear that missions can function well enough without filling the posts. We would therefore like to see a review of the structure of the civilian component of peacekeeping missions.

Mission Subsistence Allowance

The EU considers that MSA should be at any time consistent with the actual living costs in the mission area and that elements of hardship compensation should not indirectly be included in the MSA.

Standard Ratios

The EU would appreciate both a review of standard staff ratios applied to the PKOs, bearing in mind the use of IT and its effect on working processes and the improvements in core training and the development of staff, as well as an overall review of standard ratios for all aspects of PKOs. Our concerns are based on the need to ensure that the Organisation can perform its peacekeeping functions with only those resources required to do the job.

Reimbursement for COE and Self-Sustainment

The EU agrees with the ACABQ's conclusion that an effective procedure needs to be put in place for ascertaining the capacity of troop-contributing countries to meet the requirements in this regard. The EU considers that the whole system of verification should be strengthened so as to disclose non-compliance with MOUs, in particular arrival inspections on major equipment should be carried out for all contingents.

The EU shares the ACABQ's concern about the fact that the UN has been forced to start mission operations without having signed the respective status-of-forces agreements. This has, in some cases, led to the UN incurring heavy expenditures in duties and taxes. This is not acceptable. Moreover, the late signature of MOUs can affect UN liability for air-transport, in particular in case of accident and injury. The EU urges the Secretariat to consider an effective solution to this problem. We expect that these issues would be addressed soon, especially since the changes to be affected through the implementation of the Brahimi recommendations should be starting to show results, both at Headquarters and in the field.

Mr. Chairman,

Let me address another issue of great concern to the European Union: Air operations. They have become the third biggest component of expenditure after military and civilian personnel. The EU shares the ACABQ's concern on what appears to be a lack of consistent criteria to determine arrangements for procuring aircraft services. A comprehensive strategy should take into account the existence of synergies and the need for further collaboration between the different missions and other UN organisations. The EU is also of the opinion that before contracting services for the provision of executive jets, it should be clear that no commercial alternative for transportation for official purposes or medical evacuation is available.

Mr. Chairman,

We congratulate the Secretariat for the very encouraging start in setting results-based objectives in the budget of the support account for the period 2002/03. We see this as work in progress. Objective setting, monitoring and effective evaluation should aid better planning of requirements and lead to more accurate resource planning. In this respect, the EU notes with appreciation the Secretary General's intentions of conducting formal training workshops in results-based-budgeting for budget officers working in peacekeeping, and looks forward to the implementation of RBB within the PK budget submissions for the period of 1 July-30 June 2004.

It is important that the budgets of peacekeeping operations also address the need for a gender sensitive approach. Costs for the implementation of gender aspects in peacekeeping should be included in budget proposals for different missions.

Mr. Chairman,

Weaknesses have again been identified in the liquidation process of peacekeeping operations. In some cases liquidation can take up to five years. This is unacceptable. We should be grateful for an update on where matters stand with all missions in liquidation as well as proposals from the Secretariat on ways to reform the liquidation process

Staff Training

The EU is firmly supportive of training in general. However, we are concerned by the fact that training seems to lack a strategic plan which would take into consideration core training needs of staff and priority training relevant to mission requirements. There needs to be a balance between what is necessary for staff development and what the Organisation needs. We should be grateful for a detailed explanation of how the Secretariat intends to deal with this issue.

Mr. Chairman,

Procurement and Inventory Management

Procurement and inventory management are functions that account for large investments by the Organization. However, the lack of procurement planning and inadequate training of staff in this area continues to give cause for concern. Furthermore, through the use of the field assets control system, now operational in all peacekeeping missions, better control of United Nations property in peacekeeping missions should be achieved. But this seems illusive. Resolution 56/241 asks for reporting in the Support Account budget estimates on action taken by the department to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy that integrates the information and communication technology strategies of both the field missions and the Secretariat. The EU would like to be provided with this information.

Mr. Chairman,

We think that SDS will be one of the most important subjects of the Session. The lack of a rapid deployment capability has been repeatedly identified as major weakness in United Nations peacekeeping. In this sense the implementation of strategic deployment stocks constitutes a cornerstone, intimately connected with the crucial role of the UN Logistic Base at Brindisi. It would be also advisable to ensure the high quality and effective maintenance of the strategic deployment stocks. It is crucial in particular that the Secretary-General looks carefully after the inventory management and the enhanced value of the stock. Before purchasing, it would be useful to revise the standard costs of the technical components. The EU looks forward to working constructively with other member states so as to establish the SDS as a matter of priority.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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• EU Presidency Statement - The Support Account (21/5/2002)
• EU Presidency Statement - Financing of Untaet/Unmiset (21/5/2002)