UNUnited Nations Economic Commission for Europe

Member States and the Reform

 What member States said about it …
 
Ambassador François Roux, Belgium, Chairman of the Commission and Chairman of the Open-ended Negotiation Committee

This was a productive process, which does not end here. For UNECE to be an active organization we don’t have to call a reform. The reform happens once in a while. In the meantime the organization has to work by itself, that means by the involvement of member States, and my message to you today is “please, member States, remain engaged in UNECE. It is an important organization and it has a future and it depends on the participation of member States to remain active”.

 
Ambassador Alexander Slabý, Czech Republic, as a member of the Bureau, and representing Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia

The UNECE showed the courage to prepare and agree on the biggest and most important reform since 1997, if not since its creation. The outcome of the reform process is encouraging in many respects, mainly in terms of a new mission statement, a new governance structure, a renewed set of priorities as well as a redistribution of the limited available resources. Good luck to UNECE in the implementation of the new reform. The whole United Nations could take the UNECE reform as a good example which deserves to be followed.

 
Bob Fairweather, United Kingdom, on behalf of the European Union, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Croatia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, and Ukraine

At the beginning we set ourselves a very ambitious target, to reform from the bottom-up a UN regional commission, and I understand that we have never seen such an attempt neither in Geneva nor in New York and certainly never seen anyone succeed. What we are adopting today sees us very much as forerunners in the UN reform.

At the beginning of the process we had to consider what type of reform we were looking for. Was it just going to be governance, an in depth look at the work programme or budget cuts? In retrospect I think we made the right decision to look at the role, mandate and function of the organization and not to consider budget cuts, and this allowed us to look at how best to streamline, refocus and reallocate within the limited resources available. Looking at the working plan, I think that we have achieved the majority of our initial goals. I will not list all the changes but just the ones we find notable. We substantially streamlined the governance structure by discontinuing four decision-making bodies and replacing them with an executive committee. We are establishing a new subprogramme on economic cooperation and integration to focus on countries with economies in transition. We have been able to redeploy 1 D and 18 P posts, which is about 10% of UNECE staff. Many of these posts have been redeployed in areas of importance to the EU like environment and transport and we have discontinued the Economic Analysis Division and the industrial restructuring and enterprise development subprogramme.

I don't want to deal today with why the evaluation of the UNECE was necessary, now is the time to look forward, to both what we need to do now and how best we can enhance the role of the UNECE for its recognized expertise and capacity. Once the reform is implemented, the UNECE will be better placed to meet the needs of a changing Europe and subsequently all 55 member States. Enhancing cooperation with other regional organizations is surely one of the ways which will contribute to this end.

 
Ambassador Pierre-Louis Girard, Switzerland

In 2004, the UNECE realised that it had to reform. Today a reform plan is ready for adoption. I would like to express the satisfaction of my authorities for the work that has been done. And to tell you that we fully subscribe to the result that has been attained.

The reform plan makes it possible for us to pick up new challenges with which this Commission and ourselves are faced in the light of the considerable changes taking place in the economic, political and institutional context in Europe. And I include in this central Asia.

The pan-European and transatlantic character of the Commission has been confirmed by the creation of a new subprogramme devoted to economic integration and cooperation which is the most important element. To this we can add the strengthening of programmes in priority areas and the development of the UNECE in areas where its comparative advantages are recognized, such as standards for agricultural produce and so on.

This reform is part of a much wider context that is the reform of the United Nations. In this respect I believe that the UNECE has shown that in-depth reforms are possible when they are clearly in the interests of member States. Now we have to implement these measures. It is a great responsibility for the secretariat and the secretariat will need the full support of member States in the same way that we have committed ourselves to this reform procedure.

Our task will not be over with the adoption of the reform, but at least the main job will have been done. What is needed is a commitment in the long-term. This commitment has to be manifested not only through the new bodies of governance in Geneva, but also in New York in the context of budgetary discussion. Since a few years, the Fifth Committee in New York has needed our participation in budgetary discussions. In conclusion I would add that the secretariat and member States have to move forward in a spirit of transparency which has been the characteristic of this process up until now.

 
Christina Kokkinakis, Austria

We are extremely pleased to see the positive outcome and concrete results of our common endeavour. The UNECE reform has certainly addressed the major concerns of all 55 member States. More than that, being put into the wider context of the United Nations reform, it showed how successful a reform process can be.

 
Andrei Savinykh, Belarus

When in 1947 the Economic Commission for Europe was first created, a significant contribution was made to international dialogue designed to increase economic cooperation and the well-being of member States. The overall geo-political changes of the last decades have meant new problems for the Commission to deal with.

We are convinced that the UNECE is a multilateral forum whose existence is in the interests of member States, which can facilitate international economic cooperation and where we will be able to continue to exchange our experience. This is a body with unique experience which can show an increasing capability in working effectively under the new economic conditions and thus help to promote the sustainable development of member States, increasing the competitiveness of national economies and the integration of various economic groupings.

 
Marc Giacomini, France

We find the results of this reform fully satisfactory. It will make it possible for the UNECE to fully express its added value as a pan-European institution. At a time when we are moving to the actual implementation of the reform, my delegation has two wishes to express. The first on the UNECE itself. We would like to ensure that the various competencies of the body can be fully expressed. The second is that this example will be followed at the UN level.

 
Ambassador Paolo Bruni, Italy

We have achieved very good results but the UNECE has to demonstrate that it can work in this new framework, no longer living in the 1980s or in the 1990s. We have a completely different situation in the world and in the European framework and this reality has to be taken into account. That is why we would like to see this new beginning not as just a bureaucratic process, but also a process of intellectual reform with a view to achieving better cooperation, mainly for the benefit of transition countries in our region, and in order to achieve the results we want to achieve for the benefit of the people and the countries that belong to the UNECE.

 
Ambassador Kairat Abusseitov, Kazakhstan

We find the results of the negotiation process on the UNECE reform fully satisfactory. The reform of the Commission will make it possible to increase the overall efficiency of the Commission and enhance the role of the member States in directing the day-to-day activity of the UNECE.

The substantial achievements like the streamlining of the governance structure, establishment of a new subprogramme on economic cooperation and integration, as well as redeployment of the UNECE staff, will have a positive impact on the Commission. Kazakhstan supports the schedule of the Work Plan implementation with the reform entering into force at the annual session of the Commission.

 
Ambassador Zohrab Mnatsakanian, Armenia

Following the changes in the world, the break-up of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war, there was a fundamental change in the European architecture. We had to adjust ourselves to this new emerging architecture. We happen to be, with some other countries of the region, outside some of the economic organizations in Europe, such as the European Union and the OECD, while being part of other structures such as the OSCE and Council of Europe.

The problem is that the economic components of these latter structures are not strongly expressed. For us, the reformed UNECE is not only a UN entity which enables global decisions to be channelled at the regional level, it is also a truly pan-European institution with an economic dimension which is unique for us. The fact that we have established a programme on Economic Cooperation and Integration inside the UNECE is a matter of great hope for us. We are very satisfied with the outcome of the reform and we are very happy that our delegation was forthcoming in bringing about such fundamental changes.

 
Ambassador Muktar Djumaliev, Kyrgyzstan

The reform process of the UNECE launched by the member States within the broader framework of the ongoing reforming process of the United Nations is a matter of crucial importance for the Kyrgyz Republic. Especially encouraging is the creation of a mechanism which, I believe, enables the UNECE to work closer together with countries in transition, to focus on their specific needs and to assist them in overcoming challenges of transformation.

The SPECA Programme is gaining new breath and my country, in close cooperation with the UNECE and other States involved, will do whatever possible to ensure better collaboration and fruitful cooperation to sustain and promote development, stability, security and prosperity for all. I believe that the UNECE empowered with a new vision, a renewed set of priorities and a new governance structure will do its noble job for the benefit of all member States.

 
Andrey Pirogov, Russian Federation

The UNECE has always been an important body for the countries with economies in transition, both as part of the UN system and an organization active in the transatlantic region. This reform confirmed that the Commission is important for all the member States and that it is a valuable element of the pan-European economic network.

Russia was active in the reform process and will do its best to implement successfully the decisions adopted by all the UNECE membership. Our common goal is to make the Commission more efficient, more modern, and its activities more demand driven. The UNECE region faces too many real challenges to spend precious resources, including intellectual ones, on scholastic debates and outdated programmes.

One of the results of the reform is the creation of a subprogramme focused on transition economies. This is a clear sign for us that we should play a leading role in setting the priorities of this subprogramme, elaborating its work plan to make it truly helpful. At the same time it is crucial to strike the right balance between the interests of all the countries and subregions of the UNECE so that all of them are the beneficiaries of the knowledge and expertise of the Commission.

 
Ambassador Dumitru Croitor, Republic of Moldova

We have participated in the negotiation process and followed very closely the developments during that process. We highly appreciate the cooperative spirit of participating member States and the openness of the secretariat, which was of good help to us.

We expect that the actual deep reform will contribute to bringing UNECE closer to member States, and that its activities will be more transparent, result-oriented and demand driven.

We hope the reform will enter into force as soon as possible. Thus, UNECE should confirm its place as a political and economic platform for deeper cooperation and the promotion of best practices and experiences. We are confident that through its new Economic Cooperation and Integration subprogramme, the Commission will get to be more transparent and more present in the transition economies, and its results will get better known in member States’ governments and societies. We also highly appreciate the support of all UNECE member States for our sensitive issues that are reflected in the Work Plan.

 
Ambassador Dejan Šahovic, Serbia and Montenegro

The UNECE reform made perhaps a modest but certainly important contribution to the efforts to implement broad and deep changes in the United Nations system as the Organization was marking this year its 60th anniversary. The reform was carried out as a result of a genuine desire of the Commission’s member countries to make it more useful and efficient. It was a members-driven process, characterized by concrete and in the UN context short and businesslike negotiations in the final stages, which rendered a very successful outcome. The UNECE now appears to be better structured to address the needs of its members and to better interact and cooperate with other organizations in the wider European economic area, which have compatible agendas.

However, in a sense we are just beginning major work. UNECE member countries now have to ensure that changes are effectively implemented and to utilize as much as possible the capacities of the Commission to their benefit. This is especially true for the least developed countries of the UNECE area, such as mine – Serbia and Montenegro. In the final analysis, members have to be proactive and act within the UNECE in a manner that will ensure that in the longer run this reform process proves to be as meaningful as it seems now.