The Secretary-General, Kofi A. Annan
--
Message to the sixty-first session of the Economic Commission for Europe
Geneva, 21-23 February 2006
Delivered
by Mr. Sergei Ordzhonikidze,
Director-General, United Nations
Office at Geneva
New York, 21 February 2006 - I am pleased to address the Economic Commission
for Europe at a time of reform and transition. Yours is an organization
that has traditionally been proactive in terms of moving with the dynamics
of change. From the fall of the Berlin Wall through the processes of economic
integration of the 1990s, you, as Member States, have adapted the Commission
to the new realities and challenges in the region.
Today, confronted with a changing European architecture, you are adapting
yet again. I know Member States and the Secretariat will join forces to work
for effective implementation of this round, building on the strong partnership
between membership and Secretariat that has served the ECE so well in the
past.
Your reform effort rightly emphasizes the implementation of outcomes of
UN Conferences and Summits through system-wide coherence. That coherence
is particularly essential to the implementation of the World Summit Outcome
Document. The way the UN as a whole changes – from ECOSOC reform to
the establishment of a Peacebuilding Commission – will have a direct
impact on the work of the ECE. It was in that spirit I recently formed a new,
High-level Panel to explore how the United Nations system can work more coherently
and effectively across the world in the areas of development, humanitarian
assistance and the environment.
These are times of change for all of us, but I am convinced that the result
will be a more effective United Nations. I thank you all for your commitment,
and wish you a most productive session.
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Ref: ECE/GEN/06/P02