ECE TO HOLD FIFTY-FIRST SESSION IN GENEVA, 15-23 APRIL
Press Release
ECE/469
ECE TO HOLD FIFTY-FIRST SESSION IN GENEVA, 15-23 APRIL
19960417 Background Release Seeks to Prepare New Strategic Directions and Strengthen Links with Private Sector and Other International OrganizationsGENEVA, 11 April (UN Information Service) -- High-level representatives of the 55 member countries of the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), including Cabinet Ministers and Secretaries of State, will examine the preparation of future strategic directions of the Commission when they meet at its fifty-first annual session, from 15-23 April.
The forthcoming fiftieth anniversary of the ECE and the reform process of the United Nations system will be the background to the debate in the session, which will be chaired by Romulus Neagu (Romania). Vice-Chairmen are Björn Skogmo (Norway), Olexander Sliptchenko (Ukraine) and Lodewijk Willems (Belgium).
The relationship between the ECE and the private sector will be another highlight of the session. Its programme includes a round-table meeting on sustainable industrial development, which will bring top managers of major international companies together with political leaders of countries in transition.
The ECE, one of the five regional commissions of the United Nations, was created in March 1947. Its role for more than 40 years was limited and challenged by the difficult relations between two political and economic systems. The ECE became a unique multilateral economic forum for western market economies and eastern European centrally planned economies and thus accumulated vast experience in East-West dialogue and in economic analysis. With the end of East-West confrontation in Europe, the ECE thoroughly reviewed its structure and adapted its work programme to meet the new challenges of economic transition.
Emphasis was laid within its interdisciplinary activities on environment, transport, statistics, trade facilitation and economic analysis. Sustainable development is the guiding principle of all ECE activities. Assistance to countries in transition to a market economy -- now nearly half of its membership -- and their integration into the European and global economies is the paramount objective of the work of ECE.
The activities of the Commission have recently been enlarged by the establishment of a regional advisory service to advise governments and to provide information on assistance facilities offered by the international community to them.
Along with the assistance to member countries in their transition process, the delegations at the fifty-first session will discuss ECE activities to implement the pertinent provisions of the Final Act of Helsinki and other landmark documents of the Conference -- now Organization -- for Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE/OSCE), including cooperation in the Mediterranean.
In its dual role as a regional commission of the United Nations and a European institution, ECE cooperates closely with a number of other intergovernmental organizations and institutions, in particular the European Union (EU), the Council of Europe, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
The work of ECE has ramifications for the world at large. In the field of environment, the responsibilities of European and North American countries are global -- a fact reflected in the emphasis on transboundary problems in the ECE work programme on air pollution, normalization and the UN/EDIFACT system (Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport) which is now used in virtually all parts of the world.
In many fields, innovative action and research undertaken by ECE has served either as a model or as useful background for other United Nations regional economic commissions in their own programmes of cooperative action. A case in point is "Global Energy Efficiency 21", a joint programme of the five regional commissions, which takes its inspiration from the ECE project "Energy Efficiency 2000". It is designed to enhance trade and cooperation in energy efficient, environmentally sound technologies and management practices, particularly between the former centrally planned economies and countries with a market-oriented economic system.
The Commission's contributions to global United Nations programmes include the organization of regional meetings in Europe to prepare for world conferences and to play a role in regional follow-up of such events as the Fourth World Conference on Women, International Conference on Population and Development and the forthcoming United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) (Istanbul, 1996). The "Environment in Europe" programme was created under the auspices of ECE as a regional process to implement the Agenda 21 programme adopted at the Rio Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in a regional context. Transport and Environment will be the subject of a regional ECE conference to be held in 1997.
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Members
The 55 ECE member countries are Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan, Yugoslavia.
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