European Union

Statement on behalf of the European Union and its Member States

International Organisation for Migration

36th Session of the Standing Committee on Programmes and Finance

25-26 June 2025

________

Item 6(b) (I and II)

Exchange of views with the membership

 (Background document S/36/7 and S/36/9)

________

Geneva, 26 June 2025

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International Organisation for Migration 

36th Session of the Standing Committee on Programmes and Finance

25-26 June 2025

Item 6(b) (I and II) – Exchange of views with the membership

(Background document S/36/7 and S/36/9)

Statement on behalf of the European Union and its Member States

Thank you, Chair,

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

The candidate countries North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Ukraine, Republic of Moldova, and Bosnia and Herzegovina*, as well as Armenia align themselves with this statement.

1. We congratulate IOM on assuming the first convening role in coordinating solutions to internal displacement, in partnership with UNDP and UNHCR. We commend all three agencies for maintaining the momentum initiated by Assistant Secretary General Robert Piper, especially amid increasing pressures on the system. We fully align with the principle that work on solutions must be nationally owned, government-led, and anchored in development systems, with the meaningful participation of civil society, for long-term sustainability.

2. We reaffirm our commitment to the Secretary-General’s Action Agenda on Internal Displacement and its three interconnected objectives: addressing the protection needs and vulnerabilities of IDPs, preventing new and protracted displacement, and advancing durable solutions. We remain among the leading donors in displacement contexts and encourage others to step up their support. Moreover we call on IOM to support SG’s UN80 and ERC’s humanitarian reset efforts to ensure that humanitarian assistance and the UN system more broadly remain impactful and fit for purpose.

3. We welcome IOM’s recent reflections on advancing solutions from the outset of a crisis, and anchoring them in national leadership and development planning. We value the integration of solutions into early humanitarian responses — through shelter, livelihoods, documentation, and HLP interventions — underpinned by strong protection, accountability, and inclusion frameworks such as AAP (Accountability to affected population) and localization. IOM’s guidance as a Cluster Lead Agency, promoting early recovery and alignment with national systems, is particularly important. 

4. We welcome IOM’s role in shaping the evolving solutions architecture, including the operationalisation of the “circuit breaker” model, which enables timely transitions from humanitarian coordination structures to nationally-led recovery. We commend its role as a key provider of displacement data through tools such as the Displacement Tracking Matrix, which remain essential for early evidence-based solutions planning.

5. We share IOM’s view that structural solutions require a shift toward development-oriented frameworks and policies. Addressing complex issues such as legal identity, housing, land and property claims, and compensation depends on national legislation, governance, and planning. We commend IOM’s support for government-led strategies, including in pilot countries, and its participatory, community-driven approach that ensures the meaningful inclusion of affected people, especially persons in vulnerable situation. To enable a full transition to nationally owned, and internationally supported development systems, it is essential to engage development finance and the private sector, including through innovative financing mechanisms while humanitarian actors begin planning a progressive and responsible transition in accordance with the HDP nexus.

7. Chair, we thank IOM for its leadership and substantive contributions in advancing the solutions agenda. We remain firmly committed to working in partnership with IOM, UNHCR, UNDP, but also and especially with governments, International Financial Institutions and the World Bank to support sustainable, rights-based, and inclusive solutions for internally displaced persons worldwide.

Thank you.

*North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.