The Federal Government of Germany yesterday handed over the Altes Abgeordnetenhaus, the old seat of the Members of Parliament in Bonn, to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The key of the premises was symbolically handed over to the UN by the State Minister in the Foreign Office, Michael Georg Link, State Secretary of the Federal Environment Ministry, Jürgen Becker, State Secretary of the Federal Transport Ministry, Rainer Bomba, together with Rita Ruoff-Breuer, President of the Federal Office for Construction and Spatial Planning and Jürgen Gehb of the Federal Real Estate Office.
Flavia Pansieri, outgoing Executive Coordinator of the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme, signaled that this was a significant step towards a unified UN campus in Bonn. She also said she was hopeful that the magic number of 1000 UN staff in Bonn would soon be reached. Currently, over 900 staff work in the 18 UN organizations in the former German capital. Ms Pansieri, who will retire at the end of the year, has been invited to sign the Golden Book of the City of Bonn.
