EU Commission President Barroso meets with UN Secretary-General Ban

EU Commission President Barroso met today with UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon who was visiting the Commission on his first official missions since taking office.

President Barroso stated that "the European Union and the United Nations are natural partners and I want make this relationship even stronger and deeper. EC funding to the UN is more than a billion euros a year. This puts us among the top six contributors to the UN system overall. But our relationship is not only about funding. We agreed that we need to give this important partnership a stronger voice in the development and implementation of policy".

President Barroso and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also discussed the situation in Lebanon in advance of the Paris Conference on 25 January. President Barroso used the occasion to state that the Commission will be announcing new financial assistance bringing the Commission's total contribution to more than 500 million Euros since last summer.

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• EU Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner meets UN Secretary-General Ban  (12/4/2007)
• UN Secretary-General Ban and EU Parliament President Poettering hold talks in EU Parliament (25/1/2007)
• Joint Press Briefing: EUHR Solana and UNSG Ban (24/1/2007)
• EUHR Solana meets with UN SG Ban in New York (8/1/2007)
• EU-UN: Strengthening administrative cooperation between EU Commission and United Nations  (3/10/2006)
• The European Commission - United Nations relationship (18/7/2006)