By Daisy Ayliffe - 1st October 2006
UN deputy secretary-general Mark Malloch Brown has warned the EU against shying away from far-reaching reform.
In a speech in Brussels on Monday, the senior diplomat said the EU must heed the lessons the UN has learnt from its on-going restructuring programme.
“UN reform is very much like reform here,” he told European officials.
“Never forget that change is perpetual. There can be no fixed permanent state of satisfaction, there is always further to go.”
The UN suffered one of the most difficult years in its history last year – as allegations of corruption marred the institution’s oil for food programme exposing widespread bad practice.
“Oil for food exposed management systems that had not been updated in 60 years,” Malloch Brown conceded.
“The UN had failed to grow up.”
Malloch Brown has come under attack from both sides of the Atlantic in recent days for accusing the UK and US of engaging in “megaphone diplomacy" over Sudan.
But he changed tack on Monday, praising both countries for keeping Darfur on the agenda.
“On Darfur, the two leaders, president Bush and prime minister Blair are moral stalwarts on what needs to be done," he said.
“I am also glad president Barroso has been in Darfur, we must not let it slip off the agenda.”
But Malloch Brown warned the international community against issuing Khartoum with ultimatums and stressed the need for multilateral action.
He said the UN was suffering because of US reluctance to engage in multilateral diplomacy.
“We have not had a president since Truman who has said the US is a major diplomatic partner of the UN,” he insisted.
“The US uses us as a free good but are not willing to protect us and give us the means to do the jobs they want us to do.”
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