WRITTEN QUESTION No. 624/97 by Ana MIRANDA DE LAGE to the Council. Reform of the UN
Date: 1997-03-10
Institutions: European Parliament, MIRANDA DE LAGE
Subjects: EU Member State, European Union, UN General Assembly, UN Security Council, UNO, financial policy, institutional reform













EUR-Lex - 91997E0624 - EN






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91997E0624

WRITTEN QUESTION No. 624/97 by Ana MIRANDA DE LAGE to the Council. Reform of the UN  


Official Journal C 021 , 22/01/1998 P. 0003 





WRITTEN QUESTION E-0624/97 by Ana Miranda de Lage (PSE) to the Council (10 March 1997)Subject: Reform of the UNThe United Nations General Assembly has repeatedly argued for the need to reform the UN to enable it to rise to the new challenges and realities following the end of the Cold War.The Members States of the European Union, in particular those forming part of the Security Council, have always supported such a reform.The replacement of the Secretary-General, in which one country was able to steer the process, provided clear evidence of the extraordinary influence of the USA in the running of the UN, to a large extent due to the inability and lack of will of the Member States of the Union to present a solid, united front.Following his appointment, Mr Annan's first official visit was to the US. The settling of the debt was one of the items on the agenda. However, according to reports on the meetings held, the Ghanaian high official made certain promises to Congress regarding consultation on any future reforms.In view of the above, the question arises as to what extent these promises are compatible with the competencies of the United Nations Security Council and, more especially, to what extent the submission of the new Secretary General to the US legislature in talks on the necessary reform of the UN and the clear exclusion from these talks, at least for the time being, of the EU Member States forming part of the UN Security Council is acceptable to those states?Answer (6 August 1997)As the Honourable Member of the European Parliament correctly pointed out, the European Union has always supported the United Nations. The EU believes it necessary to strengthen the coordination between humanitarian activities and development programmes, as well as the mutually supportive relations between the two activities and conflict prevention and peace support endeavours.In this spirit the European Union became, from the beginning of the present ongoing negotiations, a very active participant in the UN reform debate and submitted last year and this year two position papers, one on the financial reform of the UN and one on the UN reform in the economic and social areas. The purpose of the EU proposal for financial reform was to find a method which is objective and universally acceptable to all UN Member States, and would create a long term financial basis, based on fair rates of contribution to both regular and peace-keeping scales of assessment. The counterpart of this last proposal must therefore be the commitment of all Member States to acquit their arrears and pay their future contributions promptly and in full. In its second position paper the EU has given an outline of a reform in the economic and social areas that would provide a framework to respond to the new tasks and challenges awaiting the UN. The European Union considers that the reform of the United Nations is not about cost-cutting: it is about strengthening and revitalising the organisation.