Madam Chairman,

My delegation would like to take the floor in connection with the administrative and financial aspects of UN peacekeeping operations. Hungary supports the statement made on this question by Portugal on behalf of the European Union. Since my delegation has aligned itself with that statement, we only wish to concentrate on one crucial aspect of this item of the agenda.

Peacekeeping is one of the most important and highly visible activities of the United Nations. The recent substantial increase in the number and scope of peacekeeping missions makes it even more imperative to provide sufficient resources for the organization to allow it to cope with the challenges it faces. We are aware that the peacekeeping scale - as it is currently applied - contains certain anomalies. The arrangements that were devised back in the 70s have become outdated and obsolete by now. They do not reflect the multifaceted changes that have occurred in the last decades. Therefore, Hungary shares the view that the PKO scale should be the subject of a thorough discussion in this Committee, focusing on the ways in which we can remedy a situation that was bequeathed to us by another era. In this regard, we note with satisfaction that a number of other member states are likewise speaking in favour of such a review.

Hungary supports the efforts to find a viable solution for a sound system of financing the UN peacekeeping operations, based on the principle of capacity to pay. As is known, my country currently enjoys a discount on its peacekeeping assessments as a result of its Group „C" status. Hungary has now decided to review this issue and to voluntarily renounce the discount it has been enjoying in the field of the apportionment of its peacekeeping expenses. The implementation of this decision will take place at the appropriate time, in the light of the relevant discussions in this Committee. Due account will also have to be taken of the need for my country to readjust to its new place in the PKO scale, which will entail considerable additional expenses for us. For this reason, as we are about to start an in-depth consideration of the financing of peacekeeping operations in this Committee, we also wish to emphasize the necessity of a gradual, incremental process leading to increased shares for a number of countries in the peacekeeping budget.

Madam Chairman,

In this period of acute crises and crucial challenges for the UN, we feel that it is indispensable to preserve the credibility of the world organization, to demonstrate the required level of determination and to act without undue delay in the field of peacekeeping, in order to preserve international legality and, by preventing, containing or solving conflicts, to help countries avoid the nightmares of lawlessness and civil strife. If there is one lesson to learn from our past peacekeeping experience - and let me refer here to my own personal traumatic experience stemming from my country's membership in the Security Council at the height of the conflict in former Yugoslavia, and relating, more particularly, to the visit by a Security Council mission to Bosnia in the spring of 1993 -, it is that the UN needs to move in in the right time, with the right means and the right mandates.

We are pleased to be able to make this announcement today about our readiness to revisit the issue of our share in the peacekeeping budget. We hope that it will be construed as an effective contribution to solving the outstanding issues related to the PKO scale, to making it more equitable and, by the same token, to improving the ability of the international community to come to grips with the unprecedented challenges of our times.

Thank you, Madam Chairman.

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