Brussels, 17/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has stressed the important place the European Union has in the United Nations Organisation (UNO). “The United Nations welcomes a strong, strategic and collaborative relationship with the European Union” he said, speaking in Brussels on Monday 16 April after his meeting with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy. He went on to say that the EU was an important strategic partner of the UNO, across the whole range of the UNO's activities, whether in terms of peace, development, security, or human rights. The EU, he said, is a champion of human rights values and principles. The two institutions share the same vision and a mutual commitment to work closely together on regional issues and also on global problems, he said. The UNO and the EU must work together, Ban argued, in order to be politically stronger and to make more efficient use of their respective resources. The United Nations receives direct political and financial support from the EU for its conflict prevention and peace-keeping initiatives around the world, he said, too. (CG/transl.rt)