EU Statement at the IAEA Technical Assistance and Cooperation Committee on the evaluation of technical cooperation activities in 2025

Chair, 

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the EU and its Member States. Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iceland, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Republic of Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine align themselves with this statement.  

The EU wishes to thank the Director of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), Mr. Paul Manning, and the OIOS staff for their report. 

The EU and its Member States reiterate the importance of objective and systematic evaluation and monitoring, guided by the internationally recognised criteria of relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, results-based delivery and sustainability. We call on the Department of Technical Cooperation (TC) to fully utilise the evaluation findings and recommendations in its future programme planning and implementation. 

Chair, 

This year, the Regional Country-level Evaluation and Audit focused on human health in Europe and Central Asia. The report highlights the considerable variation in the access, quality and sustainability of radiation-related medical services and infrastructure in adherence with international benchmarks across the region. 

Therefore, the Agency’s needs-based approach proved overall successful, and the national and regional TC projects are considered relevant by the counterparts. In that regard, we positively note the rise in patient throughput following the installation of modern radiotherapy equipment in several countries. Furthermore and as reported by the OIOS, regional collaboration facilitates knowledge sharing among Member States and contributes to strengthening human capacity in the health sector. These are much welcomed findings. 

Chair, 

In line with the OIOS recommendations, we encourage the Agency to further strengthen training and support to Member States for conducting effective needs assessment and to promote engagement and collaboration in Member States with WHO and other relevant international organisations, including International Financial Institutions, as they can provide important avenues to strengthen cancer care facilities in certain Member States. We also encourage the Secretariat to improve the quality and utility of project reporting through a tailored “use of information” framework and strengthened quality assurances. 

While we welcome the Agency’s contributions to gender equality being acknowledged by many counterparts in the region, we see room for further improvement in incorporating gender mainstreaming in the design of TC projects. 

Chair,  

We look forward to the outcome of the second evaluation from the OIOS 2025 work plan, focusing largely on TC and the NUTEC Plastics Initiative, to be reported to the Programme and Budget Committee in May next year. 

Finally, Chair, 

The EU and its Member States look forward to the Secretariat’s timely and full implementation of all recommendations issued by OIOS in 2025 and any further outstanding recommendations from previous programme evaluations. We continue to support the important work of the OIOS and look forward to engaging with the Office on its future evaluation work plan. 

With these comments, we take note of document GOV/2025/60.  

Thank you, Chair.