Secretary-General's remarks at the inauguration of the Regional United Nations Information Centre for the European Union

Je vous remercie d'être venus inaugurer avec nous le Centre régional d'information des Nations Unies à Bruxelles.

Depuis la création de l'Organisation des Nations Unies, les peuples d'Europe ont toujours soutenu ses idéaux et ses activités. Ces dernières années, cela nous a permis d'établir des relations exemplaires non seulement avec les pays d'Europe, mais aussi avec les institutions de l'Union européenne.

Nous sommes bien conscients du fait que, pour continuer de bénéficier de votre appui et de votre coopération - ce à quoi nous tenons beaucoup - nous devons veiller à ce que les Européens soient bien informés de ce que l'ONU cherche à faire, et nous informer nous-mêmes de ce que les Européens attendent de nous.

From now on that two-way communication will be the responsibility of this new Regional UN Information Centre –or “RUNIC” for short. This inauguration puts Europe in the vanguard of major reforms of UN information services, which aims to use our limited resources more effectively by having regional centres, well- staffed, well-equipped, instead of spreading those resources too thinly between separate national centres of the Member States.

Europe will be the testing-ground for this new system, and Shashi Tharoor, the Undersecretary-General for Communications and Information, who is here with us today, will be able to draw on the experience of RUNIC-Brussels as he proceeds to apply the reform elsewhere.

Hassen Fodha, one of our most experienced communications professionals, is RUNIC's first director. He will be leading a highly-skilled and multilingual team, based here at the Résidence Palace, in new offices most generously provided by the Belgian government. It will be his job to make sure that the whole of Europe is well informed about the United Nations. I hope the European media and civil society will soon get used to turning to Hassen and his staff for information, and indeed inspiration.

They will of course work closely with the UN Office in Brussels, which handles all UN dealings with the European institutions, and whose director, Omar Bakhet, is also with us today. Indeed, one of RUNIC's main tasks will be to make the cooperation between us and the European Union better known to the public.

Finally, let me thank the Belgian government for its generosity, and especially for the premises which it is so kindly providing free of charge. By this gesture, Belgium is once again showing its strong attachment, both to the ideals of the United Nations and to European integration.

And let me also thank Commissioner Vittorino for being with us this morning. His presence is one more sign of the close ties that link the European Union and the United Nations.

Thank you very much.