Mr Chair, High Commissioner,

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

Let me start by warmly welcoming Ambassador Salim Baddoura of Lebanon in this first formal meeting in your capacity as new Chairperson of the ExCom bureau. You can count on our collective steadfast support in your performance of this important function.

Let me also take this opportunity to thank the Secretary of the Executive Committee, Ellen Hansen, who we know will be leaving us at the end of this year. We thank you for skilfully guiding our work over the few past years, in person as well as in our new virtual reality. We wish you all the best in the future.

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Thank you, High Commissioner, for your opening remarks, clearly highlighting the growing challenges that not only your organization, but the international community as a whole, are facing in preventing, responding and finding durable solutions to forced displacement around the world. We share your concern about the “triple threat” of crisis, COVID-19 and climate change, all contributing to drive up needs and hitting the most vulnerable hardest, including refugees and other persons of concern to UNHCR. We take note of the priorities and budgeted activities presented in the 2022 Global Appeal, as part of your efforts to respond to these multiple threats and growing humanitarian needs.

We are committed to do our part. The EU and its Member States, in a Team Europe approach, are collectively the world’s leading humanitarian donor, accounting for about 36% of global humanitarian assistance. As one of the major humanitarian organizations, UNHCR is a trusted partner. So far this year, the EU and its Member States together have contributed USD 1.2 billion to UNHCR, including significant contributions of unearmarked and multi-year funding by many Member States. Germany remains the second largest donor, followed by the European Union. Ten EU Member States are members of the USD 20 million group of UNHCR top donors.

Our engagement to remain at the forefront of addressing humanitarian needs world-wide will be further strengthened in 2022 and beyond. This builds on the solid track record of our growing humanitarian budget in recent years, when 80% of the EU humanitarian budget has been allocated to forced displacement situations.

Under the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework for 2021-2027, the EU humanitarian budget amounts to EUR 11 billion. The EU and its Member States also provide significant development funding to address forced displacement, as part of efforts to strengthen engagement and coherence across the triple nexus. In that context, the EU has decided to dedicate 10% of its external development assistance budget for 2021-2027 to migration and forced displacement efforts, which amounts to almost EUR 8 billion.

Despite all our joint efforts, we remain concerned that today’s humanitarian and protection needs continue to outpace available resources, a trend that has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Addressing this funding gap requires redoubled efforts on several fronts.

First, we must continue to advance the efficiency agenda and deliver on both ends of our joint Grand Bargain commitments, improving quality of funding and ensuring that a maximum of aid goes directly to beneficiaries. We welcome UNHCR’s efforts to improve transparency, effectiveness and efficiency in the organisation and encourage continued efforts. We see the UNHCR decentralisation and regionalisation process as a good step in this direction.

Second, it is crucial to create and promote synergies with other agencies, all of them contributing to the collective response with their respective core mandates and comparative advantages. A strong commitment to cooperation that translates into practical distribution of tasks is key to address the manifold and increasing needs worldwide.

Third, more should be done to expand the donor base and achieve more genuine burden- and responsibility-sharing. The provision of assistance and protection of refugees continues to fall on the generous shoulders of countries with already stretched means, and we collectively should do more to support them. Although a number of countries have stepped up their humanitarian budgets, global humanitarian efforts continue to rely heavily on a very limited number of donors. Expanding the donor base must be taken forward as a priority and the EU is working to ramp up its engagement with like-minded and emerging donors.

Mr Chair, High Commissioner,

Allow me to stress that the support and engagement of the EU and its Member States is not limited to funding. We remain strongly committed to addressing the root causes of, as well as promoting durable solutions to, forced displacement through all our policy instruments in a joint up approach.

We look forward to the High-Level Officials Meeting next week, which will be an important opportunity to take stock of progress made so far towards fulfilling the commitments and pledges made at the Global Refugee Forum two years ago, and help identify opportunities and priorities going forward. The first-ever European Humanitarian Forum on 24-26 January 2022 will enable the EU and its Member States to engage with the broader humanitarian community and aim to identify solutions to address the unprecedented level of needs. We welcome UNHCR’s active engagement in these discussions.

Thank you.