EU Statement – UN ECOSOC : Plenary meeting between UN Resident Coordinators and Member States

Excellencies, Resident Coordinators, colleagues,

I have the honour to deliver this statement on behalf of the EU and its Member States.

Let me begin by expressing our appreciation to all Resident Coordinators and UN Country Teams for the work you do every day, often in demanding and complex circumstances. You are at the frontline of multilateral action. You bring together the UN family on the ground, align its efforts with national priorities, and help ensure that the system delivers with coherence, relevance and impact. In today’s fragmented and volatile global environment, your role has never been more important, especially in ensuring the coordination, coherence and complementarity among development, humanitarian action and sustaining peace through nexus approach.

For the European Union and its Member States, the Resident Coordinator system is one of the central pillars of UN development system reform. If we want the UN to deliver as one, then Resident Coordinators must be empowered to lead the UN on the ground as one.

We would have three comments and one question.

First, we believe the RC system is now at a critical crossroads. The solution must begin with governance. We would like to see the authority of Resident Coordinators further strengthened, together with stronger incentives for UN entities to work through the RC as the main entry point at country level. This should be supported by clear instructions from UN Headquarters. Coherence across the system cannot rely on goodwill alone; it must be built into the way the system functions.

At the same time, Resident Coordinators must be empowered in practice. Their convening power should be fully used — whether in donor coordination, engagement with international financial institutions, or in ensuring strong national ownership. These functions are central to integrated and country-led responses. 

To make this real, strengthened authority should be accompanied by a monitoring mechanism, so that the role of Resident Coordinators is not only recognised, but also respected across the system.

Second, we also support moving away from a one-size-fits-all approach. Office configurations should be tailored to country context, coordination complexity and development needs on the ground. Likewise, optimising headquarters and regional support, including through reinforced regional offices as operational coordination hubs, is a step in the right direction. Resident Coordinators need a system behind them that is aligned and designed to support delivery. 

In this sense, the EU supports reform of the UN development system, building on resolution 72/279 and aligning with the ongoing UN80 process, that includes stronger Resident Coordinator system, stronger use of expertise on demand, regional reset and deeper engagement of specialised agencies, funds, and programmes in more systematic joint planning and delivery. We see QCPR resolution from 2024, as well as last year’s OAD resolution and this year’s ECOSOC OAS resolution as steps in the right direction that reinforce the outlined reforms. 

Better governance also requires stronger transparency and oversight. In this regard, clearer annual reporting to ECOSOC would improve accountability and governance.

But governance reform alone is not enough. Without sustainable funding, even the best institutional design will fall short. And this brings me to our final point.

The EU and its Member States welcome the Secretary-General’s report on the review of the funding and governance of the Resident Coordinator System, which is now before the Fifth Committee. We consider this an important opportunity to discuss the system’s funding arrangements and governance in line with our political commitment to a stronger Resident Coordinator System.

The report raises important questions and the EU and its Member States look forward to engaging constructively, seeking further information and clarification from the Secretariat on the proposed arrangements, their implications and the available alternatives, including the need to ensure an efficient RC system structure, that is calibrated on a case by case basis, with a view to identifying a way forward towards a more adequate, predictable and sustainable financing model.

Resident Coordinators,

We believe in your transformative role. You are indispensable to a more coherent, efficient and results-oriented UN development system, which is why we believe that the next UN SG and DSG should keep a strong sustainable development mandate and oversight of the UN RC system. 

Finally, we would like to hear from you more on how you see the implementation of the reform of the UN development system within UN80 helping you in achieving better results on the ground?

You can count on the EU and its Member States as committed partners in this effort.

Thank you.