Mr Chairman,
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union.
The Candidate Countries Croatia* and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Montenegro, Serbia, as well as the Republic of Moldova and Armenia, align themselves with this statement.
At the outset, the European Union wishes to thank Assistant-Secretary-General, Controller, Mr Yamazaki, for the presentation of the report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of General Assembly resolutions 55/235 and 55/236.
Once again, the European Union reiterates the importance of ensuring the scales both for the regular budget and the peacekeeping operations reflect a fair and balanced distribution of the financial responsibilities among Member States. The EU is currently contributing at a rate far in excess of its share of world wealth, with the methodology of the regular scale resulting in an excessive rate also of the European Union’s collective peacekeeping contributions.
Maintaining international peace and security is a collective responsibility and a core activity of the United Nations. The EU and its Member States have actively participated in peacekeeping activities throughout the decades, and as chief contributor to the peacekeeping budgets, the European Union remains committed to providing adequate and efficient financial backing for UN peacekeeping operations.The reform of the peacekeeping scale in 2000 was aimed at providing an equitable and therefore stable and sustainable financial basis for this essential task of the Organisation.
The peacekeeping scale should reflect capacity to pay and the special responsibility of the Permanent Members of the Security Council. In addition the peacekeeping scale should be organised in such a way that all Member States are incentivised to take responsibility for the effective management and responsible budgeting of Peacekeeping Missions.
The European Union stands ready to review the structure of contribution levels of the peacekeeping operations scale of assessments, as reflected in the GA resolution 55/235, in the light of these principles.
The EU recognises that the Permanent Member States of the Security Council have assumed special responsibility with regard to the financing of peacekeeping operations. The level of surcharge and contributions should be sustainable.
The EU recognises that countries with less developed economies have a relatively lower capacity to contribute to the financing of PKOs and stresses that the reduction granted to countries with relatively lower income has been a solidarity measure to complement the mechanisms already in place in the regular budget scale.
Yet, finding the resources to provide the financial backing for UN’s mandate, including peacekeeping operations is a collective responsibility of all UN members. The scale should be based on objective and comparable criteria.Mr Chairman,
The European Union reaffirms the principles underlying the current methodology, yet a fresh and pertinent analysis could prove beneficial in ensuring the scale better reflects the principle of capacity to pay.
Let me assure you and other members of this Committee that the EU is approaching the coming negotiations in a spirit of openness and constructiveness.
I thank you Mr Chairman.
* Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.