By Nikolaj Nielsen, the EUobserver, 10 February 2026

 

BRUSSELS - The United Nations faces financial collapse in July, according to Annalena Baerbock, who presides over its general assembly.

 

Speaking at the Strasbourg assembly on Tuesday (10 February), Baerbock said the EU needed to pay its dues on time and tweak reimbursement rules “so as to prevent the financial collapse of the UN by July,” citing previous warnings by secretary general António Guterres.

 

“The UN is dealing with an existential liquidity crisis, as some member states have been paying their contributions late or not at all for years,” Baerbock, a German former foreign minister, added.

 

Under UN financial regulations, any portion of the budget that remains unspent must be returned to member states even if those funds were never actually transferred to the UN in the first place, she said.

 

The UN’s biggest paymaster, the United States, has cut its share of funding down from around $17bn [€14bn] to $2bn.

 

The institution had earlier appealed for $23bn to make up for a massive shortfall as the US government pulled out of 66 organisations, including 31 United Nations entities.

 

But Baerbock’s appeal on Tuesday wasn’t only about money as she called on Europeans to preserve what is left of the rules based multilateral order.

 

Without mentioning Donald Trump by name, she took broad swipes at the US president for using raw power as leverage against traditional allies.

 

“The international order is not only under pressure, it is under attack,” she said, citing Gaza, Greenland, Iran, Ukraine and Venezuela.

 

Trump earlier this year abducted Venezuela’s president and his wife in a nighttime military operation in Caracas.

 

He had also made repeated threats to annex Greenland, triggering an international crisis with the Denmark.

 

Europe is also under intense pressure to ween itself off US military might and digital dependency, spanning everything from defence to social media.

 

And Trump’s proposal for a so-called Board of Peace is seen as widely seen as an assault against the United Nations itself.

 

“We are not bystanders who have the luxury of standing on the sidelines while injustice unfolds. Silence is a choice, but so is action,” said Baerbock.   - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/13 February 2026  - - -