Mr. President,
1. 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, and Slovenia, and the associated countries, Cyprus, Malta and Turkey, align themselves with this statement.
2. First of all, let me congratulate you for your election as President of the meeting. We look forward to fruitful and constructive discussions over the next few days. We are confident that your capacity to lead us through the twelfth session of the High-Level Committee will facilitate the deliberations so that towards the end of the session we shall have achieved positive results.
3. The European Union would also like to thank the Secretariat and UNDP for the preparatory work for this session and especially for the excellent and comprehensive reports before us. These will indeed be very useful as a starting point for our discussions.
4. Last year, our Heads of State and Government agreed to a number of goals and objectives as contained in the Millennium Declaration. This document, together with the international development targets and goals and objectives of major United Nations conferences and their follow-up meetings, provide a firm basis on which to address the challenges before us. The European Union believes that TCDC has an important role to play in this context, in particular by enhancing local, national and regional capacities. TCDC should, therefore, continue to be an important element in national development policies, as well as in policies of other development actors, including the United Nations system.
5. The European Union believes that south-south co-operation, as well as sub-regional and regional co-operation, has an important role in areas such as good governance, capacity building, technical assistance and exchange of best practices, particularly in issues relating to health, education, professional training, environment, science and technology, trade, investment and transit transport co-operation.
6. The European Union also believes that the responsibility for taking the initiative to implement and secure financing of TCDC activities primarily rests with the developing countries themselves. The success of TCDC activities depends upon the commitment of governments concerned and upon the prerequisite that the activities are linked to national development priorities and programmes.
7. The European Union further believes that regional integration and co-operation should be part of development strategies, in order to address issues of regional concern, such as for example trade and environment, and also to minimise risks for political conflicts. TCDC activities can be helpful in all these fields, as well as in supporting political dialogue among governments and between governments and civil society.
8. The reports before this year's committee meeting reveal a number of positive and interesting findings with regard to TCDC activities. It is reassuring that developing countries take a more active role in initiating and financing TCDC activities. The European Union welcomes the trend that TCDC activities increasingly are becoming part of developing countries' own strategies to build national capacity. TCDC activities also contribute to exploring and finding solutions to challenges requiring regional or interregional solutions, and we welcome this aspect as well.
9. Development challenges at all levels require sophisticated and comprehensive approaches and strategies. In this context, efforts among development partners to establish long-term partnerships, which are integrated into ongoing development programmes, such as Poverty Reduction Strategies, certainly are preferable, rather than ad-hoc initiatives.
10. The European Union also welcomes the trend that civil society is becoming more actively involved in TCDC activities. The development challenges in front of us require the involvement of the private sector and non-governmental organisations in order for us to find sustainable solutions.
11. The European Union is pleased to note that many TCDC initiatives have been implemented in line with the Buenos Aires Plan of Action. Progress is being made. In particular, we welcome the new developments in triangular co-operation in areas such as human resource development, research and institutional capacity building. Of course, the activities should continue to be managed and implemented by the developing countries themselves and be based on the use of expertise from these countries.
12. The European Union continues to support the work of the UN system to promote TCDC activities in all relevant programmes. We believe that the UNDAF process provides an excellent entry point for UNDP and other UNDG partners to mainstream TCDC into programmes.
13. Technical co-operation among developing countries can certainly help states to meet the challenges of globalisation and to benefit from its opportunities in order to achieve national priorities and international development targets.
Thank you.