On
UN Budget EU
Fights For
Place, US for
Freeze, Coin
Flipped, Ban
Leaves
Amid Criticism
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 27,
updated --
Before the UN
Budget
committee met
Thursday
for the launch
of Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon budget
proposal, a
dispute broke
out about how
and when the
European Union
would speak.
In
the scrum in
the
front of
Conference
Room 1 with
committee
chairman Tomo
Monthe of
Cameron were,
among others,
US Ambassador
Joe Torsella,
Egyptian
Ambassador
Maged
Abdelaziz and
new EU
representative
Thomas
Mayr-Harting,
previously the
Permanent
Representative
of Austria.
After
some
shouting, the
huddle broke
up. Inner City
Press learned
from numerous
sources that
the EU's push
to speak
second after
Argentina for
the
Group of 77
and China
triggered much
opposition,
resolved
finally by
"a coin flip."
The fight will
continue, it
was vowed.
Under
the one-time
solution, the
EU was
scheduled at
the end of the
regional
groups.
This was
apparently not
good enough:
when Ban
Ki-moon
"surprisingly"
got up and
left even as
the Caribbean
group CARICOM
spoke,
Mayr-Harting
and his
entourage
followed Ban
out into the
hall and
huddled with
him.
A
European
representative
complained
bitterly about
G77's "pure
provocation."
A diplomat
well versed in
the budget
expressed
shock that Ban
left, along
with his
senior adviser
Kim Won-soo
and
Vijay Nambiar.
"It won't help
Ban," the
diplomat
predicted.
And
there are many
fights to
come. Ban was
criticized
for, among
many things,
delays in
his ERP
project call
UMOJA -- Ban's
top management
official
Angela
Kane has
defended the
project and
its exposed
former
director --
and
for refusing
to appoint a
Special
Adviser on
Africa.
(c) MRLee
Huddle
of EU
Mayr-Harting
& Ban
Ki-moon, Kim
Won-soo,
Caricom not
shown
Only
after the EU
finally spoke
would the US
take the
floor, in the
form of
Ambassador
Joe Torsella.
He had
proposed
televising the
session; G77
responded
that all
General
Assembly
committees
should be
UNTV.
Inner City
Press tweeted
at Torsella
for a reply;
he tweeted
back that the
US
seconds the
motion to
televise all
budget
committee
functions. But
what about the
other
committees?
Watch this
site.
Update:
When
the EU's turn
came, Mayr
Harting
started
procedurally,
saying
that Ban
Ki-moon
supports the
EU position.
Hence the
hallway
confab?
US
Ambassador Joe
Torsella
called for a
freeze in pay
at the UN, and
an end to
Secretariat
"add ons" and
recosting. He
said the UN
budget is
misleading and
unclear. Can
it be cleaned
up? We'll be
covering it.
, 
