UK tries to stave off UN budget battle

By Mark Turner 
May 25, 2006  
The Financial Times
Original Source: http://news.ft.com/cms/s/6c93de1a-eb8a-11da-823e-0000779e2340.html
Britain has launched last-ditch efforts to avoid a debilitating crisis that could starve the United Nations of cash as the developed and developing worlds prepare to battle for control over the world body.
Current budgetary arrangements expire next month and the UN's rich-world financiers, led by the US and Japan, have tied future funding to poorer countries' agreement to reforms that would inject more efficiency and transparency into the way the UN is managed.
But a coalition of developing countries, fearing those reforms will erode their influence over UN decision-making, last month rejected many of the proposals during a dramatic and ill-tempered meeting of the UN's budget committee.
UN officials and analysts warn there is now a very real danger that the US and possibly others will curtail payments if the situation is not resolved. A worst-case scenario would shut down many UN functions and put employees on compulsory unpaid leave.
In a sign of the depth of bad feeling, the G77 group of developing nations last month broke a 20-year UN tradition of taking budget decisions by consensus. Instead it voted through a resolution against the wishes of the US, Europe, Japan and other big contributors, which together account for 87 per cent of contributions to the UN budget.
That may prove too much for the US Congress, as it heads towards elections and considers new spending on the UN. It may also provide Japan, disappointed at failing to win a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, with ammunition to cut its contributions. Even some European countries have made threatening noises.
The UK claims it is winning support for a new compromise that would introduce the less controversial reforms, such as stronger supervision of the UN's performance, while setting a timetable for the tougher issues, such as outsourcing and staffing changes.
Britain hopes to provide a bridge between both sides' hardliners: the US and Japan on one side, and developing world leaders such as India - which also happens to be one of a handful of disappointed candidates for a permanent seat on the Security Council. I'm trying to identify where the common ground may be, said Sir Emyr Jones Parry, the UK ambassador.
But it is uncertain the two sides want a deal at all. The developing world, emboldened by last month's vote, balks at any erosion of its power. And the US, represented by John Bolton, its ambassador and long-time critic of the UN, sees the debate as a test of whether the UN is capable or not of dealing with Washington's 21st century priorities.