UN General Assembly
1976

78. We fully realize that the Committee is facing a difficult task. We would only be fooling ourselves if we were to close our eyes to the fact that vested interests also have developed inside the United Nations system. Thus my Government is not discouraged by the slow progress made so far in the work of the Ad Hoc Committee on Restructuring; but evidently more political backing is called for to prevent this important work from ending in frustration. The Committee has a very broad mandate and has itself identified certain priority areas. Perhaps even this program is too ambitious if we want to see concrete results within the foreseeable future. My Government would like the Committee to single out the Economic and Social Council as the priority area. An Economic and Social Council restructured along lines on which I understand there is already a high degree of agreement inside the Committee would be in a position to discharge its duties under the Charter much more effectively and would itself be able to play a main role in a wider restructuring of the system. Thus concrete action in this field should not have to be delayed till agreement has been reached in all the fields covered by the broad mandate of the Committee.