Brussels, 04/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission and the United Nations have decided to work together to improve their budgetary, financial and human resources. The Commissioner for Administrative Affairs, audit and the fight against fraud, Siim Kallas, and Mark Malloch Brown, vice-Secretary General of the United Nations, officialised this new relationship in the realm of administrative cooperation, with an exchange of letters on 3 October.
The agreement will enable the two institutions to exchange information and adopt better practices on programming and budgeting, human resources, simplification of administrative procedures, financial controls, audits, financial responsibility and transparency. Two contacts have been appointed to organise this cooperation: Claude Chene, Director General of the Commission's Personnel and Administration and Christopher Burnham, Under Secretary General for the United Nations Administration. Brown and Kallas will meet every year in New York or Brussels to examine what progress has been accomplished in administrative cooperation. The first meeting is planned for February 2007 (lc)