EU Callers: Ban Ki-Moon Declares for an Active UN, and Good Housekeeping
- January 25th, 2007
- Posted by EUA Editor
The United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, in Brussels (24.1.07) confirmed what observers worldwide have been saying about him: that he’s a technocrat also heading an organisation actively engaged on many fronts.
He met the full European Commission, then told journalists he had set a priority to reform and change the United Nations, to ensure it could work more efficiently and effectively.
However he was also overseeing several UN operations in the field, at the moment putting a priority on the crisis in Darfur, in the Sudan.
He believed the UN needed to be prepared to intervene in troubled situations, after lessons it had learned at the time of the genocide in Rwanda.
Ban Ki-Moon -a former South Korean Foreign Minister- said the European Union gave vital help to the United Nations with financial and political crises around the globe, especially on projects such as refugee relief, the fight against terrorism or disease, or protecting the rights of abused children.
The President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, announced EU aid of EU500-million (A$806-million; Dcerates) for Lebanon, in the context of its general assistance to the Middle East.
The contribution is part of an international effort to help Lebanon clear heavy foreign debt.
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