UN General Assembly
2003

In view of the new challenges that the United Nations is required to face, Cyprus strongly supports the Secretary General’s United Nations objectives, which aim at adapting the internal structures and culture of the Organization to new expectations. It therefore welcomes the work done on strengthening the management and administration — as well as streamlining the budget — of the United Nations. My country also attaches great importance to the improvement of the intergovernmental structure and processes of the United Nations and the revitalization of the General Assembly as essential elements of the reform process, whose aim is to bring about a stronger United Nations system that will be able to effectively pursue the priorities adopted in the United Nations Millennium Declaration. We certainly need effectiveness but we cannot separate it from legitimacy. In Cyprus, we know, from our own experience, both the importance of legitimacy and the need for effectiveness. We have been facing the catastrophic results of aggression and we have been struggling for more than 29 years for the solution of