THE Tanaiste, Mrs Spring, has urged UN member states to work to solve the UN's financial crisis and reform its structures to allow it to deal with the growing number of violent conflicts and humanitarian crises, reports Mark Brennock.
In his speech to the UN General Assembly yesterday on behalf of the EU, Mr Spring, warned that if the UN cannot respond to the challenges facing it, "the multilateral approach which the United Nations embodies is under threat".
That multilateral approach was necessary to deal with the growing problems facing the world. "Our peace and prosperity cannot be assured by states, or even regions, acting in isolation," he maintained.
Mr Spring called on all UN member states to pay their debts and contributions "promptly, in full and without preconditions". The UN is currently owed some £2 billion, of which half is owed by the United States.
The Republican dominated US Congress is refusing to approve the payment of the debt on the grounds that the UN is wasteful and inefficient and has failed to implement reforms.
While seeking payment of debts "without preconditions", Mr Spring acknowledged the need for reform. He called for renewed efforts to rationalise UN activities in the economic and social fields and to enhance efficiency and better management. Some progress had been made in this regard, "but we are still far from the overall results needed".
He said that at last year's 50th anniversary of the United Nations there had been a dual message. "Conviction that the United Nations remained more than ever indispensable in a world of increasing interdependence of nations concern that the organisation adapt and renew itself to serve the needs of a new century."
But he questioned whether this message had been acted upon. "Have we strengthened the potential of the United Nations? Or yet sufficiently exerted the energy and imagination necessary to use the opportunities it offers us?"
Last year's 50th anniversary celebration "was tempered by a sobering awareness that the level of conflict, economic disparities and humanitarian crisis in our world was increasing, not diminishing".
He suggested that the ineffectiveness of some peacekeeping operations had not been the fault of the UN.