European Union and the United Nations
The European Union (EU) has permanent observer status at the United Nations (UN) since 1974, and gained enhanced participation rights in 2011. The EU itself does not have voting rights but it is represented alongside its 27 members, one of which, France, is a permanent member of the Security Council.
Contribution[edit]
Individual member states, and not the EU as a whole, pay dues. The sum of the contributions of EU member states provided 30.4% of the regular UN budget in 2016[17] (this is compared with the US at 22% and Japan at 9.7%).[18] EU member states also collectively provide 33.2%[17] of the funding for UN peacekeeping missions and around half of the budgets for UN funds and programmes. Almost a third of the European Commission's aid budget goes to the UN.[7] EU member states collectively provided 13.5% of peacekeeping personnel (11,140 men and women) in 2006.
The EU also operates its own missions to support the UN, such as the EU mission in the Congo to support the UN peacekeepers there. The EU also established and funds the African Peace Facility.[7]
The EU supports the UN's values of freedom, democracy and human rights. The preamble to the EU's treaty cites the UN Charter's human rights articles and is very active on the UN Human Rights Council. The EU was also instrumental in setting up the system of UN Special Rapporteurs on human rights issues.[7]
Future[edit]
The EU holds an observer seat on the executive board for funds and programmes, where the European Commission is a big donor and Mark Malloch Brown, former UN deputy secretary general, believes the EU will gradually be represented more and more, starting with the aid departments, eventually leading to the EU taking up a seat on the Security Council.[23]
However the extension of the EU's role at the UN is politically sensitive among some EU members, particularly the United Kingdom during its membership, who did not want to risk reaching a point where they would have had to give up their permanent seat on the Security Council.[1] This is alongside EU member Germany requesting its own Security Council seat,[24] and is vocally backed therein by the UK and France.