EU Presidency Statement - Illicit trade in small arms and lights weapons

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, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia and the associated countries Cyprus, Turkey and Malta as well as the EFTA countries members of the EEA, Iceland and Liechtenstein align themselves with this statement.

Mr Chairman,

The European Union would like to thank Under-Secretary-General for management Joseph E. Connor, for his clear and focused presentation last Thursday. We are grateful, as always, for his hard work on the effective management of United Nations resources.

First of all, the European Union welcomes the positive news in Under-Secretary-General Connor's presentation. In 2000, 141 member states paid, some despite considerable economic hardship, all regular budget assessments in full - for 2000 and all preceding years.

However, this positive feature accounts for only one rather small portion of the overall financial situation of the United Nations. While the year 1999 was good and inspired optimism, the main indicators show for the year 2000 a less bright picture. The European Union remains deeply concerned about the finances of the Organisation.

Mr Chairman,

At the end of 2000, arrears in contributions for the regular budget, peacekeeping and Tribunals budgets were still in excess of $2.2 billion, an increase of $500 million more than the preceding year.

In this context, we call upon all Member States to meet their Charter obligations in full. Increasing demands are being put on the Organisation, as evidenced by the continuous recent upswing in peacekeeping activities, including such missions as UNAMSIL, UNTAET and UNMIK. The European Union renews its appeal for a full, prompt and unconditional payment of all assessed contributions.

In particular, we would like to stress the importance of payment by the largest contributor of its arrears and assessed contributions to the United Nations. As part of its wide-ranging discussions last autumn, the General Assembly agreed on granting relief to two categories of Member States: on the one hand, to those member states whose economic circumstances genuinely require it, and on the other hand - at an increased level - relief to be payable to the largest economy in the world, in order to resolve its long and persistent record of accumulating arrears. The decision finally taken in December last year on the scales of assessments, was motivated by the will of all Member States to ensure the financial stability of the Organisation for the years to come, and was based on the premises that the largest contributor would henceforth pay the full amount of its assessed contributions to the regular budget, the tribunals and peacekeeping operations, settle its arrears to the Organisation by 2003, and pay $582 million of its arrears immediately.

The first quarter of this year has passed, and we are deeply concerned that these arrears have as yet not been paid to the United Nations. We take note of the assurances given by the representatives of that member state that its governmental bodies, and I quote, "have been moving quickly to ensure that the full amount of arrears /…/ are promptly paid".

Mr Chairman,

In this context, the European Union reiterates its concern about the organisation's considerable debt to all troop and equipment contributing countries, many of which are developing countries. For the first time in several years, the Secretary-General has not been able to fully pay out to Member States new obligations incurred during the current year. And let me add, Mr Chairman, that this is due to the continuing delays in payment of arrears by the largest contributor and therefore we urge this country to honour its commitment, in order to enable the United Nations to make these overdue reimbursements to troop contributing countries. In this context, we note USG Connor's statement that all the $582 million expected from the largest contributor would be used to compensate troop and equipment contributing countries.

In his presentation, Mr Connor made it very clear that the present financial situation has a negative impact on areas that are fundamental to the activities of the United Nations. In this connection, we recall the decision by the General Assembly in October of last year, to apply Article 19 of the United Nations Charter, the sole mechanism to ensure payment of assessed contributions, in a fairer and more consistent manner.

Allow me, Mr Chairman, to conclude by reiterating the European Union's strong commitment to this Organisation. As collectively the largest contributor, our assessment rate even surpasses our share in world GNP by almost 25%. Furthermore, the EU Member States and the European Commission together provide close to half of all Official Development Assistance (ODA) world-wide. The European Union thus assumes an important financial responsibility, which we have duly honoured.

I thank you.

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• Déclaration de la Présidence sur les petites armes (2/8/2001)
• Déclaration de la Présidence de l'UE sur les Petites armes (11/7/2001)
• Déclaration de la Présidence de l'UE sur le commerce illicite des armes légères (19/3/2001)