Chair,

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

At the outset, let me reiterate the EU’s strong support for the activities of the IAEA across the spectrum of its mandate. We remain committed to ensuring that the Agency is sufficiently and sustainably resourced, effective and efficient and able to meet its legal obligations, statutory tasks and the increasing demands of Member States in its core mandate areas.

We recognise that the current high inflation rates lead to a significant loss of purchasing power for the IAEA. Indeed this also applies to our national budgets.

While we thank the Secretariat for the work that has gone into preparing the Revised Draft Budget Update for 2023 and the related non-paper, as well as for its efforts to manage the situation, we are not in a position to support the proposed very high price adjustment increase. In addition to the real financial challenges, we all face in large part due to the consequences of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, such a substantial change is not feasible at this late stage in the year, when national budgets for 2023 have been set.

Against this background, we call on the Secretariat to develop an alternative, lower proposal. We note that the current proposal compensates for the cumulative effect of 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 inflation rates. A more realistic point of departure might be to focus on the revised 2023 inflation forecast issued by the European Central Bank while taking the effects of other years into account at a later stage, as foreseen by the Secretariat’s price adjustment methodology.

In addition, while we recognise the efficiencies and savings already achieved in the 2022-2023 Programme and Budget, we call for additional efforts in that regard. We recognise that this is not an easy task to accomplish, but the current circumstances make this necessary despite the undisputed importance of the IAEA’s core tasks.

In view of the time constraints we face, we call for the early submission of an alternative proposal and welcome further consultations as soon as possible to reach a consensus in line with the timelines presented. We thank the Chair of the Board for having called today’s meeting without delay.

Finally, we reiterate our call on all Member States to pay their assessed contributions in full and on time, especially those countries in arrears with meeting their obligations. Contingency paragraph in case the issue of TCF is raised by G77.

[We have noted views expressed regarding a possible adjustment of the 2023 TCF target. We would point out that the factors that have given rise to the proposed revised version of the Regular Budget are not directly applicable to the TCF. Indeed, as pointed out by the Director General, the implementation of the Technical Cooperation Programme is supported by the Regular Budget. In addition, many Member States have already made their TCF pledges for 2023. Therefore, we would call for utmost restraint at this late stage of the process].

Thank you, Chair.