Check against delivery
Sixty-first annual session of the Economic Commission for
Europe
Geneva, 21-23 February 2006
Introductory remarks by the Executive Secretary,
Mr. Marek Belka
Thank you, Mr. Chairperson. Thank you all for being here today, for coming
to participate in the sixty-first session of the United Nations Economic Commission
for Europe (UNECE).
This is my first Session and as most of you know, I have been on board as
Executive Secretary only a few short weeks. However, and as I have said to
some of you recently, I have jumped onto a running bus and have therefore
also participated from day one in two interrelated and major tasks: Reform
implementation and the Annual Session. I thank Ambassador Roux, as well as
Mr. Garonna, who worked so closely with you during the Reform, for helping
me in this task.
My message to you today will be short. Because first and foremost, I want
to hear from you. I have been listening and I will continue to do so.
I want to listen to you now during the Annual Session and afterwards. I want
to gain an appreciation of your perspectives on the various subjects at hand.
The challenge will then be to work with you to reconcile different views that
you may have among yourselves.
Demand-driven and flexible but focused…
Ladies and gentlemen, the Reform reaffirmed that ECE facilitates greater
economic integration and cooperation among its members and promotes sustainable
development and economic prosperity. To help the ECE continue to be an organization
that responds to the needs of its members and to their citizens, the Reform
restructured the programme of work and emphasized the need for ECE to be demand
driven and flexible enough to respond to new demands within the changing environment
in Europe. At the same time, in responding to demands, we need to take account
of our capacity – we cannot overstretch ourselves to the detriment of
quality.
Cooperation with partners…
The Reform also emphasized cooperation with our partners, another point
we will discuss today. This is important - ECE is not an isolated island
but one piece in a complicated jig-saw puzzle in an over-crowded Europe.
ECE needs to find its fit, its value added, and it needs to see how it
can work better with others so as to maximize its contribution.
Partnerships do not happen because it is written that such cooperation
is desirable. Cooperation happens because each side understands that by
working together more can be achieved and each side stands to gain.
I am informed that some of our partnerships work extremely well and we
will hear about that today. Others are on the right track. However, I do
not think that this potential has been fully exploited in all cases. I
think that we need to sell ourselves better to our partners so that they
will USE us. And to do this, we need to start by having a better definition
of our relationships with other bodies.
I think that our cooperation with the European Commission could be strengthened
and I look forward to meeting with the Commission to discuss how this
can be realised. The Commission will have its ideas; I have my own. For
example, I think the Commission could tap our knowledge and use us in implementing
more of its policies, including its new Neighbourhood Policy.
In listening, some of you have emphasized the need to better cooperate
with subregional organizations and initiatives, to increase our cooperation
with other regions. This is another matter that I look forward to studying
and discussing with you.
The economic context…
Of course the reform does not take place in a vacuum. The economic context
- the framework in which ECE operates and the issues affecting the region
will impact on our work. I am therefore very pleased that I will have a
chance to listen to your views about which issues you might want the reformed
ECE to take up or concentrate on at some stage, including an expression
of your immediate priorities for the new subprogramme to tackle within
the framework approved in the Reform.
Global reforms….
The global agenda – the reform of the UN at large will also impact
on the ECE as it is part of the United Nations and I look forward to gain
more insight about this as well as to how ECE and its reform can contribute
to wider change in the UN. What can be our contribution?
In conclusion, I believe that you would have not gone through the Reform
process if you did not believe in what ECE has done and its potential for
the future. Our challenge now is to implement the reform. It is a challenge
for both you, the Member States, and for us, the secretariat. I believe
that by working together we can succeed and I pledge that the secretariat,
starting with myself will be full partners in this endeavour.
Thank you.
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Ref: ECE/GEN/06/P03