The EU in Geneva: Coordinating Policy in the Economic and Social Arrangements of the United Nations System

Abstract

This chapter considers the arrangements for coordinating the policies of the European Commission, EU member states, and EU Presidency in those social and economic organizations of the UN system that are located in Geneva. The member states have long established mechanisms at the UN in New York to discuss, and, as far as possible, harmonize their policies towards issues that are under consideration in the General Assembly and Security Council. These arrangements largely fall within the context of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), but the extent to which they apply to economic and social matters was rarely addressed directly. According to the Commission there had been only ‘low-key EU co-ordination on United Nations policy and operational issues in the fields of development and humanitarian issues’.² But in the early years of the new millennium, the EU member states and the Commission began to address the question of the EU’s relations with the UN’s economic and social institutions more directly and energetically (European Commission, 2001c and 2003).

Research for this chapter was carried out in the period 2000–03 and included extensive interviews with national and EU officials in Geneva. I am grateful to them for their help.