Chair,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The candidate countries Türkiye, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Bosnia and Herzegovina[1]  and Georgia, the EFTA countries Iceland, and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, as well as San Marino, align themselves with this statement.

The EU thanks the Director General for the Technical Cooperation Report 2023 and congratulates the Agency for the continued successful implementation of the TC Programme.

The EU and its Member States reaffirm their longstanding commitment to and support for the Agency’s Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP). We recognise that it plays a critical role in helping Member States and particularly the least developed countries (LDC) to address pressing challenges and achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which must remain a fundamental priority for the work of the United Nations also here in Vienna.

The Director General has launched important flagship initiatives such as ZODIAC, NUTEC Plastics and Rays of Hope. To maximise their impact, we invite the Secretariat to continue enhancing partnerships with other International Organisations, the private sector and civil society, including at country and regional levels. The newest IAEA initiative, Atoms4Food, launched together with FAO last October, will contribute to the ongoing international efforts to enhance global food security and tackle hunger. We look forward to receiving further updates and feedback from the beneficiaries on the implementation of these initiatives.

We appreciate the Agency’s efforts to take into account a gender perspective in the planning, design, implementation and evaluation throughout the project and programme lifecycles. The increased percentage of female project counterparts and participants over the last years is encouraging. We urge the IAEA to actively advance gender mainstreaming in all TC activities.

Chair,

It is reassuring to observe the Agency’s focus on building a more efficient and effective TCP. We encourage the Secretariat to continue working closely with the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) and the Ethics function, and address all their TC-related findings and recommendations.

We note with satisfaction that the implementation rate of the TC Fund (TCF) once again slightly increased last year. We encourage the IAEA to continue reinforcing in-house cooperation and coordination to maximise the synergies between the TC and other departments and to enhance transparency, overall efficiency and effectiveness in project implementation.

We also invite the IAEA to conduct comprehensive outcome monitoring, based upon verifiable indicators to assess results and the sustainability of projects, and to identify possible areas of improvement.

We reiterate the importance of the needs-based, demand-driven and non-discriminatory nature of the TCP. Nuclear safety and security remain among the priority Fields of Activity for the EU. We welcome that nuclear and radiation safety and security feature as a priority area in an increasing number of Country Programme Frameworks (CPFs).

We also highlight the potential synergies between the TCP and European Commission’s joint projects with the IAEA, including under the EC-IAEA Practical Arrangements on nuclear security and nuclear science applications signed respectively in 2014 and 2017.

Under these, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre supports, for example, the development of nuclear medicine and radioligand therapy in IAEA Member States. It includes participating in knowledge transfer, training and development of guidelines for the safe handling of alpha emitters in clinical practice, and supplying small quantities of radionuclides to enable pre-clinical and clinical trials in projects comprising countries in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia.

Chair,

Total resources for the TCP slightly decreased in 2023. We therefore encourage the Secretariat to continue its efforts to mobilise resources, also from non-traditional donors.

Also in 2023, EU Member States remained among the major contributors to the TCF, along with substantial extra-budgetary contributions and in-kind support, including from the EU institutions. We therefore pay particular attention to the governance of the TCF, and appreciate the detailed financial overview provided in the TC Report supplement. The EU and its Member States will remain reliable cooperation partners in the years to come.

Finally, Chair, we look forward to a successful Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Science, Technology and Applications and the Technical Cooperation Programme on 26-28 November 2024 in Vienna.

With these comments, we take note of the reports under consideration of this item.

Thank you, Chair.

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