December 23, 2000: The UN agrees to reduce US dues for the first time in more than a quarter century. On the regular budget, the US share is cut to 22 percent from 25 percent, and the peacekeeping scale of assessment drops from 26.5 percent from 30.6 percent. It still exceeds the 25 percent level set by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Concessions from a number of nations, many of them prospering, are the key to striking a deal.
Japan gets a cut of one percentage point, to 19.5 percent of the regular budget. The UN will have to find new sources to provide 4 percent of the operating budget. Russia and China voluntarily increase their payments, though marginally. The dues of Britain, Denmark, Greece and Ireland go up, although in total the European Union adds only 0.3 percentage points to its bill. A number of countries voluntarily give up discounts immediately. Others agree to give them up in the future.
The agreement is also based on the premises that the US would, in future, pay the full amount of all its assessed contributions, settle its arrears to the UN by 2003, and pay $582 million of its arrears immediately. Member nations leave open the possibility of reversing today's decision if there is reason to do so at the next review.
December 22, 2000: UN members reach a tentative deal to substantially reduce American dues to the world body, after media magnate Ted Turner offered $34 million to help Washington out of its political impasse. The purpose of the funds is to help make up the gap in the administrative budget next year, a direct result of the US dues reductions. Many nations will be allowed to stagger their respective increases over three years.
Instead of a six-year base period to measure a country's economic growth, the UN will now use 4.5 years, which gives some countries, such as Britain, whose economy has thrived, a substantial increase. The exception to the ability to pay would be the US. Japan, now paying some 20.5 percent of the budget, is to get a rate decrease to just under 20 percent. The Japanese parliament would not be able to swallow nearly the same rate as Washington with an economy less than half the size of that of the US.
December 19, 2000: A Mexican proposal links the peacekeeping discount more closely to a nation's wealth. Nations are divided into nine groups instead of the current four, with discounts ranging from 90 percent of the regular budget assessment for the poorest nations, to 20 percent for the wealthier ones. Dozens of nations will not receive any discount.
The P5 would pay premiums on top of their regular budget assessments. Other wealthy nations likely to have their shares increased have agreed informally to the Mexican proposal. However, it is a not clear whether the proposal would reduce the US contribution for peacekeeping to 25 percent, as Washington demands.
December 19, 2000: The US delivers $217 million in back dues. The payment will put the UN back in the black and avert any need to raid peacekeeping accounts this month in order to meet regular budget bills. What has been received is payment of more recent, but still overdue, assessed contributions.
December 13, 2000: Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., the highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee put himself in the middle of the conflict over the level US dues at the UN. He says (link to "A High-Ranking Democrat Lobbies for a Dues Break From UN, New York Times") that a reduction to 22 percent in regular dues by the General Assembly is an absolute requirement. Without that, diplomats can forget the whole package.
December 8, 2000: The Swedish Ambassador to the UN writes a letter to New York real estate mogul Donald Trump proposing that he help finance the renovation of UN Headquarters in New York.
December 8, 2000: Ambassador Jean-David Levitte makes a statement expressing that Europe will not pay higher UN dues to offset any reduced payments by the US.
November 27, 2000: In a speech to the Fifth Committee US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke admits that there are deep concerns about US arrears and how they will affect UN peacekeeping operations. He says that the US is committed to resolving the financial crisis this calendar year and that over $200 million is available next year if the necessary changes in the current system are made. He is speaks also of the US' "generosity" in support of many UN activities financed on a voluntary basis.
November 26, 2000: Japan plans to ask the UN to reduce its budget contribution to 17 percent of the total budget from the current 20.573 percent. Liberal Democratic Party members feel Japan's share should be less than 15 percent, considering that its bid to become a permanent member of the Security Council has not been realized.
November 11, 2000: Former deputy US representative to the UN William Vanden Heuvel suggests that the best way to stem the "increasingly destructive" US influence on the UN is to decrease US financial obligations and correspondingly US dominance. The EU could then step in to lead the way on wide-ranging UN reforms.
October 31, 2000: The UN, its agencies and the diplomatic and consular corps contribute $3.2 billion a year to the economy of the New York City area alone, according to mayor Rudolph Giuliani. This has generated 30,600 jobs, yielding $1.2 billion in annual earnings.
October 24, 2000: According to the DPI, the extent of the financial crisis is "increasingly serious." As of today, member states owe the UN about $ 2.7 billion, including $1.6 billion from the United States.
October 3, 2000: US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke asks the Fifth Committee to re-evaluate the assessment scale for the financing of peacekeeping missions.
October 2, 2000: "We seek a reduction in the ceiling not to shirk our commitments, but to strike a more appropriate balance," US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke states in the Fifth Committee.
October 2, 2000: The EU rejects an US request to have its UN dues reduced. This statement gets support from a number of other countries that deny a reduction in dues for the US. The EU agree that the scale needs reworking, but only to reflect real changes in the world economy.
"We consider that the ceiling of 25 percent is already a great privilege because the United States represents 29 percent of the world G.N.P.," Ambassador Jean-David Levitte said in an interview after his speech. Japan is also opposed to a reduction of American dues when the Japanese, with just below 15 percent of world G.N.P. is assessed 20.6 percent of the regular budget.
October 2, 2000: French Ambassador Jean-David Levitte speaks to UN Budgetary Committee and enumerates the principles on which European Union's proposals are bases:
-Each Member State's contributions must reflect their real ability to pay as closely as possible in the light of the current economic situation.
-The methods used to define the scale must be simple, equitable and transparent.
-A Member State's ability to contribute to the Organization's expenditure should depend first of all on its recent macro-economic performance and on currency movements. These two factors determine each Member State's "purchasing power" in the currency in which we pay our contributions today: the United States dollar.
October 2, 2000: Secretary-General Kofi Annan and UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Sadako Ogata warn of critical funding shortages for the Organization's relief activities.
September 18, 2000:The United States Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (Maryland) says that the US does not owe anything to the UN for peacekeeping, but that the UN does, in fact, owe the US another $17 billion.
September 13, 2000: The US let it be known that further payments on its arrears are contingent on a revision of its assessment scale, a reduction of the US obligation to 22 percent and 25 percent for regular dues and peacekeeping dues, respectively.
France, speaking for the European Union, insists that "the principle of 'capacity to pay'" is the benchmark for member states' contributions. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright says she expects an agreement on a revised scale by this fall and that UN members, including the US, "must do a better job of making payments on time," while also looking at cost allocations.
September 7, 2000: In a statement during the Millennium Summit, the leaders of the P5 commit themselves to a "fairer" system of financing UN peacekeeping operations. Madeleine Albright says the meeting calls for modernizing the system of calculating financial dues to the UN to provide "a more stable and fair foundation for United Nations operations."
A statement from the P5 says the leaders "recognize the need to adjust the existing peacekeeping scale of assessments in light of changed circumstances, including countries' current capacity to pay."
August 18, 2000: The UN reduces Moldova's debt in membership dues from $3.5 million to $2.5 million. This allows the country to regain its right to vote in the General Assembly. The remaining $1 million will have to be repaid over a longer period.
August 16, 2000: Brazil informs the US that it cannot afford to increase its contribution to the budget of the UN. The US wants to increase the contribution of other countries, among them Brazil, and decrease its own. The Latin American countries' total assessments, which is currently 1.5% of the UN burget, would be raised to 2.5%.
August 8, 2000: The International Atomic Energy Agency faces a financial crisis and may soon have to cease key operations. It has already curtailed some aid projects and defaulted on $1 million in travel expenses. The US covers about a quarter of the agency's $300 million annual budget. IAEA Director General Mohammed Baradei cannot understand why "Congress is considering building an NMD system--at a cost of more than $60 billion--that would attempt to shield the country from missile attacks by countries as North Korea, which the Agency monitors closely."
July 26, 2000: The UN faces a major funding shortfall in tackling humanitarian crises from Congo to North Korea, with donors so far providing only a third of the $2.5 billion the organization has sought for this year.
July 22, 2000: The UN plans to announce ambitious proposals to renovate its headquarters in new York. Funding for this project could reach $1 billion and has yet to be secured. The United States may be asked to pay a significant amount of the bill.
