The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE)

I. Presentation

Created in 1947 by the UN’s Economic and Social Council, the la UN/ECE is one of the 5 regional commissions of the UN. It has 56 Member States (EU, CIS, United States, Canada, and Israel).

Its role is to promote pan-European economic integration and to provide assistance to transition economies.

The governance is structured as follows:
 The Commission for Europe is the main governing body and holds one meeting on average per year to take the main decisions.
 Sectoral Committees, under the aegis of the Executive Committee, are responsible for technical work (environmental policy, inland transport, sustainable energy, trade, cooperation and economic integration, timber, etc.) and get the private sector widely involved. Finally, the UN/ECE organizes every 2 years an enhanced session to draw up a comprehensive review of its activities.
 The Priority Areas of Work are environment (which has witnessed significant progress over the last years with the signature of 5 regional conventions), transport, energy and assistance to transition countries (new committee for cooperation and economic integration). The standard-setting work of technical groups of the UN/ECE concerns almost all industrial activities: transport (car manufacturing as well as road signs and classification of the major European transport corridors), energy, timber, agri-business.

II. Relationships with France

France provides extra-budgetary contributions in the fields of energy and environment.

The areas of activity on which we lay the most emphasis are:
1. Environment;
2. Energy;
3. Transport.

^{Updated on 16.11.10}