Statement by H.E. Ambassador Sanja Štiglic, Permanent Representative of Slovenia to the United Nations, on behalf of the European Union
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Distinguished Co-Chairs,
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union.
The Candidate Countries Turkey, Croatia and The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and the EFTA country Iceland, member of the European Economic Area as well as Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Armenia align themselves with this declaration.
Distinguished Co-Chairs,
At the outset, let me congratulate you on your appointment as co-chairs of the mandate review process. At the same time, I would like to thank the previous co-chairs for the work they have done on this issue in the 61st session.
As stated previously on many occasions, the European Union believes that mandate review should be a successful exercise in the wider framework of UN reform, which is aimed at improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the Organization.
The mandate review exercise – as we know from past experience – may generate long discussions and a lot of documentation. It can also be time consuming.
We see today's presentation of the working document and the proposed methodology as effective means for providing us with the necessary information and analytical tool in a format that Member States can easily use in their review and assessment of the existing mandates. We hope that this will lend new impetus to the process.
We thank you for the hard work and dedication, as well as for the many hours of consultations with various groups and countries, including the European Union, for preparing the presented methodology.
We also would like to subscribe to the proposed approach of focusing discussions first on one cluster – effective coordination and delivery of humanitarian assistance – and then, based on the acquired experience, to move on with the other clusters. As regards the humanitarian cluster, we note with appreciation that the initial analysis is before us today, drawing on information from relevant UN agencies, as well as from directly affected countries. We will look carefully to this document and we look forward to the opportunity to discuss it with you and the rest of the member states.
Distinguished co-chairs,
Let me conclude by assuring you that you can count on the support of the European Union in pursuing the suggested work programme.
Thank you.
