EU Presidency Statement - Proposed Programme Budget for Biennium 2004-2005

Mr. Chairman,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The acceding countries Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia, the Candidate countries Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, and the EFTA countries, members of the European Economic Area, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, declare that they align themselves with this statement.

Mr. Chairman,

Let me first of all express our deepest appreciation to you, to the Fifth Committee Secretariat and in particular Mr. Moises Abelian, the Secretary of the Fifth Committee, and Ms. Nora Benary, his Deputy, for the extraordinary work done during this 58th Session. We wish also to address a particular thank to the Coordinator of this agenda item, the Programme Budget for the Biennium 2004-2005, Mr. Aizaz Chaudhry of Pakistan, for the excellent result we all achieved, and convey our gratitude to A.S.G. Ms. Catherine Bertini, to the Controller, Mr. Jean-Pierre Halbwachs, and the Director of the Budget Division, Mr. Warren Sach, and to their team: they have truly done an outstanding job in the most difficult of circumstances!

Mr. Chairman,

Referring to the programme budget of the U.N. for the biennium 2004-2005 that we are adopting today, we wish to recall our statement of last October 28, 2003, when we, looking to the next future, declared that we wanted "to fill the ship with fuel, but with an engine that is capable of traveling at full steam ahead".

In this respect, we are glad to observe today that, notwithstanding the many difficulties that were lying on our path, we have achieved this target: we have now a new budget of the U.N. amounting to 3 billion and 160 million dollars, with 51 new posts: this budget is intended to allow the UN to accomplish its increased international mandates.

At the same time, we have adopted the first practical steps to effectively implement the long awaited reform of the budgetary cycle of the U.N., and we have entrusted the Secretary General with wider power of redeploying staff on an experimental basis.

We believe that these reforms will help to modernize the UN, and will produce in the future incremental results and further efficiency gains.

Mr. Chairman,

We hope that the role played by the U.E. in the negotiations, collaborating with the partners of a wide extended group of countries, has been instrumental for you to achieve this success.

To the success of negotiations has contributed in a determinant way the G-77 and we would like to single out our praise for Minister Aicha Afifi of Morocco, the distinguished Chair of G77, for her work: her tireless efforts to reach a compromise reflecting the objectives of all delegations was extremely appreciated and admired by the E.U.

Thank you Mr. Chairman.

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• EU Presidency Statement - Proposed Programme Budget for 2004-2005 (28/10/2003)
• EU Presidency Statement - Proposed Programme Budget for the Biennium 2004-2005 (16/6/2003)
• EU Presidency Statement - Programme budget for the biennium 2002-2003 (13/5/2003)