After several long days and nights of bargaining in the General Assembly's Fifth, or budgetary, Committee, which included late-night visits from Secretary-General Kofi Annan and drop-ins by GA President Harri Holkeri, a tentative accord was reached in the wee hours of Friday.
"I am extremely pleased to be able to stand here and to be able to report to you the budget has been done," said U. S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, standing outside the Security Council chamber.
"There's a little bit of cleanup left, but it's been done and we met our deadline and it was a very near-run thing," he told reporters. "Yesterday at this time we had no idea if we were going to make it or not."
While Washington sought a peacekeeping cut to 25 percent, Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking Democrat Joseph Biden, D-Del., said last week he felt colleagues could accept a 27 percent peacekeeping tab if the main budget bill was whittled to 22 percent.
"It looks like it will start out in the 27s for 2001, and then move down over the next two years," Holbrooke said. "This is a tremendous achievement for the United Nations. For the first time since the original 1973 peacekeeping structure was put into place, there was a review of it and changing it was not easy and everybody had to make concessions and everybody had to make adjustments. But, in the end, we got a deal."
This is victory day for Holbrooke in his last month as Washington's permanent representative to the world organization. He spent most of his energy during his 16-month tenure concentrating on U.N. reform, to streamline the organization and lower Washington's tab. He spent six of those months "just getting it on the agenda" of the committee.
Holbrooke said he couldn't have pulled the budget deal off without the help of a friend, billionaire Ted Turner, whose Turner Foundation already was overseeing the distribution of a $1 billion gift to the world body. Holbrooke said that about six weeks ago Turner wanted to know what was holding up a budget accord.
One of the reasons given was that several national governments had already passed budgets including their U.N. contributions, but on the old scale of assessments, Holbrooke said. That left a shortfall between what the United States would pay next year and what other nations would be paying the world organization, about $34 million. So they were reluctant to have to seek additional funds from their national parliaments.
One U.S. official told United Press International that Turner simply replied, "Hell, I could do that if it got to a deal." A British diplomat told UPI the Turner $34 million offer was a "lubricant": "That sort of lubricant actually has been quite good in getting the deal even though it is not a major building block of the deal but in easing the blocks together. It's a key element that has allowed the deals to be done."
The Fifth Committee was restructuring the U.N.'s approximately $1 billion annual administrative budget based on gross national product. The peacekeeping budget, which varies widely, was expected to be more than $3 billion a year.
British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock told reporters his nation was increasing its share "because of our recent economic growth." But, he said, it was only the fourth-highest hike in the European Union, Greece leading the pack by going up "about 50 percent from a very low base."
Ireland and Denmark are also going up more than the United Kingdom. South Korea was understood to go up the highest amount, which was not immediately available, in budget assessment.
Britain was going up "about 10 percent over its 2000 payment," Greenstock said.
Holbrooke said China was going up from less than 1 percent to more than 1.5 percent.
Greenstock said Russia was increasing from just under 1 percent to just over 1 percent.
"So you can see the kind of movement we've had," London's envoy said. "We are way down the ladder of those paying a lot." A U.S. diplomat, who did not want to be named, said the agreement "shows some flexibility and progressivity and it can be re-negotiated if people's economic fortunes change."
But under the surface, there was concern about U.S. arrears, most recently put at just over $1 billion, and assurances were sought it would be paid, especially if a deal were done on lowering the ceiling. Members of the committee felt some kind of mechanism had to be worked out for the payment of U.S. arrears.
A French diplomat said Thursday there was a plan in the works to cover a three-year period for the debt to be settled if the 22 percent figure was given.
The whole Holbrooke accord still has to get Capitol Hill's approval. In the meantime, the Fifth Committee late Friday worked on details of the accord before going into a formal meeting to adopt the resolution, which would then goes to the General Assembly Plenary for routine approval.
Chief U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard explained that the understanding reached Friday would result in several changes in the calculation of the scale of assessments for the U.N. regular budget.
For example, he said, the statistical base period for which country economies were studied to assess how much they should pay on the ability-to-pay system would be reduced from the current level of six years to 4.5 years and the ceiling for how much any one nation should pay would be reduced from 25 percent to 22 percent, unofficially, yet realistically reflecting Holbrooke's 22 percent victory.
The Fifth Committee earlier Friday held a formal meeting to handle some other outstanding business, approval of peacekeeping operation funding.
The Committee considered a draft resolution that would approve some $8.7 million in additional funding for additional U.N. posts and requirements that would be paid out of the support account for peacekeeping, as well as some $430,000 in political affairs and other expenses to be appropriated from the regular budget.
Asked about U.N. finances this year, Eckhard said that, with the recent payment of $217 million from the United States, "We will finish this year in the black."
If other money appropriated by the United States were to be disbursed to the United Nations, he added, it would go toward the payment of countries that have contributed troops and equipment to UN operations but had not been reimbursed because of the U.S. arrears.
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