UN budget spending cap underlines reform agenda

UN members agreed last night on a two-year budget with a €950m (€800m) spending cap next year to step up pressure for speedy UN management reforms that are a top priority for the US and the European Union.

US Ambassador John Bolton called it a victory for the US. Britain’s UN Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, whose country holds the EU presidency, said he wouldn’t claim victory for its 25 members but for the United Nations.

Jamaica’s UN Ambassador Stafford Neil said the main bloc of developing nations which he heads was ”unhappy” with the spending limit but decided to go along with it.

The agreement was reached after weeks of intense negotiations and a final round of meetings in the private office of General Assembly President Jan Eliasson. Ambassadors from wealthy and developing nations who had been at odds over the budget emerged together and announced that a deal had been reached.

The General Assembly’s budget committee scheduled an immediate meeting to approve the agreement. Once that is done, the 191 members of the General Assembly will meet to approve a series of budget resolutions.

The US, Japan, Europe and other wealthy nations who pay about 85% of the UN’s budget joined forces early yesterday to back the spending cap next year – which means the United Nations will probably run out of money in six months.

Their aim is to put pressure on all UN members to agree on management reforms by June, so that when the General Assembly is asked to approve another $950m (€800m) to cover UN operations for the rest of 2006 there will be sufficient progress for a “yes” vote.

The powerful Group of 77, which represents 132 mainly developing countries and China, had said it would only agree to a $1.35bn (€1.1bn) cap on UN spending. Several key members including Egypt and India objected to any link between the new budget and management reform.

The fight over the UN budget became entangled with the battle over implementing the broad reforms that world leaders agreed to at a UN summit in September. Reaching agreement on the nuts and bolts of the reform programs and how they will be implemented has so far proved divisive and time consuming.

Some UN reforms have been approved.

On Tuesday, a new UN Peacebuilding Commission was established to help countries emerging from conflict manage the difficult transition to stability and development. Annan also signed a directive to protect whistleblowers.

But the General Assembly has put off talks on a new Human Rights Council to replace the discredited Human Rights Commission until January 11, and no action is expected until late February on key management reforms.

They include reviewing and eliminating old UN programs, initiatives to make managers more accountable, greater flexibility for the secretary-general to run the organisation, and a new human resources policy.