Mr. Chair,

I have the honor to speak on behalf of the Member States of the European Union.

The Candidate Countries Türkiye, North Macedonia*, Montenegro*, Albania*, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina*, and Georgia, as well as Andorra, Monaco, and San Marino align themselves with this statement.

Let me first thank you and the members of the Bureau, as well as Mr. Hussein Roshdy, for your tireless efforts, continued engagement and diligent guidance to conclude our previous session in a timely fashion. Allow me to extend our gratitude to the members of the Secretariat, in particular the 5C-team, for enabling our work so we can adopt the best decisions for the Organization, its staff, and the people it serves – now more than ever, the world needs a functional United Nations that delivers its mandates.

Allow me also to congratulate Uganda on assuming the Chairmanship of the Group of 77 and China. We look forward to enhancing the excellent collaboration we have maintained with Cuba and all precedent chairs of the Group, whom we would like to thank for their efforts towards continued, trustful, and constructive cooperation.

Mr. Chair,

Our Committee resumes consideration of several critical items for the United Nations' efficient and effective functioning. It bears repeating that the First Resumed Session was established to address non time-bound items deferred from the main session, without hampering the important work of the session dedicated to Peacekeeping. We would like to highlight three areas of particular importance in this regard.

1. The European Union and its Member States continue to attach great importance to supporting the Secretary-General in his ongoing efforts to modernize and reform the UN, starting with supply chain management, an instrumental part of Management Reform, and commend the progress achieved as we believe that these reforms will lead to a better and more responsive Organization. Conversely, we remain concerned with the continuous attempts to undercut the independence of supervisory bodies and hamper their investigations. In that regard, we reiterate our strong commitment towards a robust accountability framework. A cornerstone of Management Reform and the delegation of authority, accountability of the Secretariat staff and its stakeholders, is key to foster a culture of ethics and transparency, and to prevent and address misconduct.

2. For the EU, it is crucial that 5C continues to adequately fund all mandates created by legislative organs of the UN. This session again, our Committee is indeed tasked to decide on several structural budgetary matters. The EU will pay particular attention to ensuring adequate funding for the orderly liquidation of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) and the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic created by General Assembly resolution 77/301. We also look forward to the discussions on an improved model for more adequate, predictable, and sustained funding to the Resident Coordinator System. Adopting budgets is not enough, however, and we reiterate our call that all Member States fulfil their financial obligation to the Organization so it can implement and executes all its mandates.

3. Our Committee will also resume its discussions on Human Resources Management. The adoption of resolution 77/278 last year marked the culmination of years of negotiations and we look forward to its different clauses for follow-up, whilst returning this agenda item to its biennial nature. We remain convinced that, as set out in the UN Charter, the workforce of the Organization should continue to embody the highest standards of efficiency, competence and integrity, while reflecting the people it serves, including in terms of geography, gender equality, age, and capabilities. We commend the Secretary General for his tireless efforts as chief administrative officer to modernize the UN human resources system to that end: the women and men who work at the United Nations are instrumental to deliver the Organization’s mandates, to uphold its principles, and to defend its values. While we welcome the progress reported in the new composition report, we also highlight that our Committee should find ways to consider the wealth of more up-to-date information available on the workforce portal and, in this regard, want to acknowledge the Organization’s efforts to further diversify its workforce:

• we welcome the reduction of un-, under- and over- represented countries to-date;
• we encourage further system-wide efforts towards achieving gender parity at all levels, including in the field;
• we insist on the need to ensure access of persons with disabilities;
• we repeat our call to acquire and retain new and younger talents, to rejuvenate the UN;
• finally,we reiterate the importance of multilingualism and the need for linguistic diversity to be adequately reflected in the human resources management of the UN.

Mr. Chair, this First Resumed Session was extended to 5 weeks, at considerable cost to the Organization and to its Member States. Let us make it count. We are confident that, under your stewardship, we can adopt negotiated outcomes on all topics, on time, and by consensus.

I thank you, Mr. Chair.

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