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EU Statement - ILO 355th GB - The ILO in a changing multilateral environment: Towards better effectiveness and efficiency

25.11.2025
Geneva
Press and information team of the Delegation to the UN in Geneva

ILO Governing Body, 355th session 

17 – 27 November 2025

The ILO in a changing multilateral environment: Towards better effectiveness and efficiency

GB.353/INS/7

EU statement

 

Chair,

I speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.

We align with the IMEC Statement.

Director-General,

  1. The EU and its Member States want to empower you to steer the ILO through these difficult financial times and the ongoing reform process.
  2. We thank you for your presentation last Friday and for the written supplementary information, both of which provided important clarifications and contributed meaningfully to transparency. We expect you to continue sharing information with constituents throughout the whole process, for example through notes or briefings.
  3. Given the financial situation, and in order to keep the Organisation operational while the reprioritisation exercise is being conducted, we encourage you to continue implementing targeted cost-saving measures that do not pre-empt the reprioritisation exercise. We acknowledge the measures already undertaken as set out in Friday’s document.
  4. Regarding other steps, we look forward in particular to the reprioritisation proposal. We welcome your announcement on Friday that consultations will take place ahead of the March Governing Body, where beyond guidance we expect the GB to take decisions on priorities.
  5. We reiterate that reprioritisation must be aligned with the UN-80 initiative. It is important that the task team engages closely with other UN agencies with complementary mandates and presents a concrete proposal to achieve synergies and complementarities based on comparative advantages across the UN system, while preserving the ILO’s unique tripartite structure.
  6. Adjustments to the ILO structure should follow a two-phased approach as described in the supplementary note.
  7. We acknowledge your prerogative to establish a leaner high-level management structure in the coming weeks and to appoint a new Deputy Director General. We trust that you will ensure a balanced leadership structure and full adherence to ILO’s core mandate. As members of the Governing Body, we will support you in this exercise, while recognising that after the March GB it may be necessary to examine whether the structure is still fit-for-purpose.
  8. The finalisation of the lower-level organisational structure, in particular merging and restructuring of departments, branches and units, must follow a Governing Body decision on reprioritisation.
  9. This sequencing is clearly reflected in Appendix II of the supplementary information: high-level adjustments are envisaged by March 2026, while the merging and restructuring of policy departments runs to June 2026, following the March GB decisions.
  10. Finally, we reaffirm our commitment to a strong and resilient ILO grounded in its normative mandate and supported by effective development cooperation. We remain fully committed, politically and financially, to the ILO’s development work across all policy areas and all regions. We also support the Global Coalition for Social Justice as an important initiative with the potential to enhance synergies within the UN system and to contribute to the spirit of the UN-80 initiative.
  11. To reflect our points, we have submitted a sub-amendment to the Workers amendment.

Thank you.