Major achievements in 2005
The two issues of the Economic Survey of Europe produced in 2005 provided
a review of current macroeconomic developments and an assessment of the
short-run outlook in the UNECE region with special emphasis on eastern
Europe and the CIS. The better performance of the United States relative
to western Europe in terms of output and productivity growth since the
1990s is now an accepted fact. The first issue of the Survey included
a study which analysed this issue from a longer-term perspective, and
suggested that a more comprehensive comparison between the United States
and western Europe, that includes social and environmental indicators,
income distribution, social welfare and health care, might present a different
picture than if per capita gross domestic product alone is considered.
Rich endowments in oil and gas present tremendous opportunities but also
significant challenges to sustainable economic development for a significant
number of member States in the UNECE region. With the aim of identifying
some of the main tasks and responsibilities of UNECE governments, the
UNECE Spring Seminar 2005 dealt with the topic “Financing for development in the UNECE
region: promoting growth in low-income transition economies”. Participants
at the Seminar pointed out that the gains from globalization have been
shared unequally and that some countries have been left behind because they
have been unable to mobilize sufficient domestic financial resources or to
attract sufficient foreign capital to invest in economic development. They
called for multilateral and international cooperation to guarantee stable
access to international financial markets for developing and transition economies.
In accordance
with the ongoing restructuring of some UN-wide analytical activities,
the UNECE has new responsibilities in the preparation of the annual
publication World Economic and Social Prospects (WESP) and World Economic
and Social Survey (WESS) published by the Department of Economic and
Social Affairs (DESA) in New York. UNECE has provided substantive inputs on
the short-term economic outlook in the UNECE region for the next issue of
WESP. It has also prepared background papers on the medium term growth
potentials in the region for the WESS.
UNECE contributed to the review of commitments of the OSCE by preparing
a report on “Integration, Trade and Transport” in the UNECE region,
highlighting OSCE commitments in the areas of integration (i.e., trade
and capital flows) as well as transport. In the context of integration, assessment
of the degree of access to the Internet as well as other forms of modern communication
was also made. UNECE has also been involved with the OSCE in jointly developing
the conceptual framework for the early warning mechanism.
Pascal Lamy, current Director-General of the World Trade Organization,
delivered the 2005 Gunnar Myrdal lecture on “Global Governance: Lessons from Europe”.
In this presentation, Mr. Lamy attempted to determine the right kind of
governance for a world that is now global and the amount of governance that
is needed. Starting from the principle of subsidiarity, where governance should
be as local as possible, he reasoned that global governance should be limited
to those cases where a more regional approach would be ineffective. Using
this basic principle, he examined the need for global governance by drawing
on the experience of European integration.
Population analysis focused on the Generations and Gender Programme
(GGP), and on the follow-up activities to the UNECE Ministerial
Conference on Ageing (MiCA, Berlin, 2002) and to the European
Population Forum (Geneva, 2004).
In the framework of the follow-up to MiCA, the UNECE organized
the workshop «Care
Provision in Ageing Societies: What are the Policy Challenges and How to Address
them?» in April in Malta, in cooperation with the European Centre for
Social Welfare Policy and Research and the Institute for Older Persons
and Social Services, Madrid, Spain. The workshop outlined a two-pronged approach
to the review of the implementation of MiCA decisions by governments, which
includes monitoring the policies specific to population ageing and the extent
to which ageing is mainstreamed into general development policies.
In the framework of the revision of the Recommendations for
the 2010 Round of Population and Housing Censuses in the
UNECE Region, the UNECE will prepare and publish a study on
national practices during the 2000-round of population and
housing censuses.