Revised Provisional Expenditure Authorization to Fund Serbia Election Observation Mission
As delivered by Tracy Newell, Director of the Office of Resource Management
to the Special Permanent Council, Vienna
November 15, 2023
We welcome the adoption of the revised provisional expenditure authorization, which ensures adequate funding for ODIHR to carry out an Election Observation Mission for the upcoming Serbian elections. This is in accordance with both the autonomous institution’s mandate and the expressed wishes of the Serbian government.
We are pleased that participating States could concur to support the transfer of 170,000 euros from the institution’s Human Dimension Meeting’s line item to ODIHR’s elections department budget in order to fulfill this request. It is unfortunate, however, that the lack of consensus for nearly two years on a Unified Budget means that we had to resort to such measures to find sufficient funding. We call on all participating States to negotiate in a constructive manner and find necessary consensus to decide on a Unified Budget.
Let me close by reiterating that this decision today is taken without prejudice to any future budget decision or planning for future Human Dimension Implementation Meetings and Seminars.
###
