Chair,
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union.
The Acceding Countries Bulgaria and Romania, the Candidate Countries Turkey, Croatia* and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, and the EFTA country Norway, member of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova align themselves with this declaration.
The statement will successively deal with item 1 and item 3 of the agenda.
First item on the agenda - The 2005 World Summit Outcome document: Implications for the ILO
1. The pursuit of the Millenium Development Goals is the number one priority of the European Union’s Vision of Development. The European Union therefore thanks the Office for the important document entitled "The 2005 World Summit Outcome document: Implications for the ILO" which analyses the implications for the ILO and which proposes lines of action for further ILO engagement in the implementation of the outcome document.
2. The United Nations 2005 World Summit expressed unprecedented support for decent work as a global goal. This strong support provides new momentum for the ILO’s work and leadership. A fair globalisation, productive employment and decent work for all must indeed be central to the United Nation’s broad development vision and its operations. The ILO should seize this opportunity to give clear guidance to all ILO constituents on what specific measures to take at the national and international level to promote decent work in a globalized world. Time has come to capitalize on the ILO’s work in this area. This also means for the ILO to proactively engage in a process of inter-agency cooperation to forge for policy coherence and convergence towards this goal. The EU underlines in this respect again its support for a system-wide approach involving all relevant international organisations including an ongoing dialogue and cooperation between the WTO, the Bretton Woods Institutions and the ILO.
3. The EU welcomes in this regard, that the ILO has been assigned the lead agency role for the High Level Segment of the UN ECOSOC 2006, which will focus on ‘Creating an environment at the national and international levels conducive to generating full and productive employment and decent work for all, and its impact on sustainable development’.
4. The EU agrees with the approach outlined in paragraph 15 of the office document, that decent work is a horizontal policy theme and should be seen in relation with a range of other issues outlined in the Outcome document. In this regards, the EU wishes to underline the important role of the World Bank, regional financial institutions and the IMF in improving development and employment.
5. The EU can support most of the policy options suggested in paragraph 17 including the promotion of fundamental labour rights, the strengthening of tripartism and social dialogue, better governance to make decent work a global goal and the integration of social and employment goals into international trade, finance and other economic policies. Regarding the last point, we underline the importance of taking into account the impact of changing trade regimes on employment and decent work. For that purpose the European Commission carries out Sustainability Impact Assessments (SIA) before and during trade negotiations, in order to identify the economic, social and environmental impact of envisaged trade agreements.
Just for clarification: we assume that in bullet point 4 of paragraph 17 the intention is to work ‘with’ the social partners rather than ‘through’ them, and in point 6 we mean framework in the singular.
6. We encourage the office, to use the opportunities offered by the current Programme and Budget. Succinct policy statements completed by some examples of cost-effective, replicable and feasible measures - as outlined in paragraph 18 - can be a useful tool and an incentive to engage or reinforce national development strategies towards decent work.
7. Relating to Development Cooperation, the EU would like to highlight the recently agreed EUROPEAN CONSENSUS ON DEVELOPMENT between the European Parliament, the European Council and the European Commission. It underlines the multi-dimensional aspect of Poverty Eradication including decent work and job creation. The EU is firmly committed to increasing financial resources and has adopted a timetable for Member States to achieve 0.7 % of GNI by 2015, with an intermediate collective target of 0,56 % by 2010, and calls on partners to follow this lead. These commitments should see annual aid double to 66 billion EURO in 2010.
8. We welcome the ILO's work with development cooperation agencies to systemically integrate the objectives of productive employment and decent work and the close collaboration with the European Commission.
9. We note with great interest the information provided on the "employment and decent work promoting tool" that is deemed to assist organisations of the UN-system, and look forward to be informed on the ongoing work.
10. The EU encourages active cooperation of the ILO with the new Human Rights Council, taking into account their respective mandates and capacities and avoiding duplication of effort. This cooperation is especially important since part of the United Nations System’s standards and practical experience is anchored in the ILO’s work, for instance on the areas of child labour, forced labour, discrimination, and freedom of association and collective bargaining.
11. On the matter of UN reform, the EU is of the view that 2006 presents a real opportunity to revitalise the system:
12. We welcome ILO’s readiness to contribute to the High Level Panel on system wide coherence as mentioned in paragraphs 42 and 43 and to lead the Specialised Agencies in a discussion on a strengthened UN system and its impact at country level including an enhanced role of the UN Resident Co-ordinator.
13. The EU strongly supports the new Decent Work Country Programmes (DCWP’s). We encourage the ILO to pursue the Decent Work Country Programmes and the other operational activities in close cooperation with the UN-system so that it can take profit of the ILO's unique legal and tripartite expertise.
14. We are committed to deeper and faster reform of the UN. As part of this we want to support long-term predictable financing of agencies and expect to see continued, concrete progress on the harmonisation and simplification agenda and joint programmes at country level. The focus for ILO should be on setting achievable milestones for reform over the next three years or so, and we would like to see the Office develop a structured ILO response to the reform agenda.
15. In conclusion, we note the possible policy and programmatic options that the ILO could pursue. We would look forward to discussing these in the appropriate Governing Body Committees.
Third item on the agenda - Policy coherence: Growth, investment and employment
16. Finally, we would like to focus on the third item on the agenda and thank the Office for supplying a report on the fourth Informal Meeting on the Policy Coherence Initiative on Growth, Investment and Employment that focused on the interaction between macroeconomic policies and labour markets. We welcome the close cooperation between ILO, IFAD, IMF, UNCTAD, UNIDO, DESA, World Bank, WTO under involvement of representatives of workers' and employers' organisations. Specifically the discussion on positive and negative effects of labour market regulation shows how much the inter-agency approach is needed to break up one-sided views and to pursue joint research activities.
17. We welcome action taken since the Working Party last convened and note the encouraging signs - especially the fact that various agencies are increasingly recognizing the need for more coherent policies and are willing to contribute. We are pleased that the next meeting of the Policy Coherence Initiative in April 2006 will be focussing on balance between flexibility and security in developing countries and look forward to learn about the outcome.
18. We note the information on the tripartite seminar in South Africa that took place in December 2005 and encourage the Office to continue the initiative as outlined.
Thank you, Chair.
* Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.
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