European Union

Statement

354^th session of the ILO Governing Body

GB.354/INS/5

The ILO in a changing multilateral environment: Towards better effectiveness and efficiency

Geneva, 14 June 2025

EU statement

Chair,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.

The candidate countries North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Republic of Moldova, Georgia, the EFTA countries Iceland and Norway members of the European Economic Area align themselves with this statement.

1. We would like to thank the Office for presenting the document “The ILO in a changing multilateral environment: Towards better effectiveness” and placing this important topic on the GB agenda.

2. As highlighted by DG Houngbo at the opening of the International Labour Conference, the ILO is going through turbulent times, similar to other multilateral institutions. The current context imposes a duty to reform: the ILO must reform to become more effective and efficient. And these efforts should be seen as part of the UN80 initiative.

3. The EU fully supports the UNSG’s vision for the UN80 initiative, which is a crucial and timely process. As a result of this initiative, the UN should become stronger, more agile, transparent, cost-efficient, effective and accountable, ensuring it is fit for purpose.

4. A system-wide perspective, coherence and engagement is crucial. The entire UN system is expected to implement substantial reforms aimed at enhancing effectiveness and efficiency. UN specialised agencies, including ILO, should play a key role in the successful implementation of the UN80 initiative. They should be recognised as integral components of the UN80 reform process and contribute to the work of the relevant fora. To make this process work, all UN system entities have to closely cooperate.

5. We therefore welcome that the reform measures proposed in this document as well as in one to be submitted to the Governing Body in November are aligned with the UN80 initiative. We also support the aim to reinforce the Office’s core mandate and mission-critical functions, while improving effectiveness in the allocation of resources, structure and operating models, particularly in view of the currently changing environment, taking into account that this is also a critical moment for ILO and all UN staff. In this respect, we underline the importance of social dialogue, the involvement of ILO’s staff in the process and a human-centred approach. In moving forward with the reform measures, we believe it is of utmost importance that the process does not affect the ILO’s ability to fully carry out its mandate to advance social justice by enabling Member States to improve conditions of labour with urgency. The normative system and its supervisory mechanism are central to this mandate.

6. In this light, we would like to ask the Office to share information about the ongoing consultations with other parts of the UN system, in particular with regard to the operational presence at country level, as one of the objectives of the ILO reform is to strengthen the capacity to support its constituents on the ground and provide technical support in the field alongside Member States and social partners. We would like to emphasize that in any case, when considering relocating staff to the field, the Office should also take into consideration the record of potential host countries, in terms of ratification and implementation of ILO’s conventions, especially the fundamental ones.
    

Thank you, Chair.