The United States is taking some flack from its closest European allies for debts owed to the United Nations. Pressure for the United States to pay its share is increasing from many U.N. members because the 50-year-old organization is nearly $3 billion in the red.

The United States is expected to pay 25 percent of the U.N. budget and one-third of it’s peacekeeping expenses. However, the United States has withheld, and continues to withhold payment of an owed $1.3 billion debt because it seeks U.N. reform.

President Clinton has called for cost-cutting measures that include agency consolidation, travel reduction and staff cutbacks.

But some leaders have decried instituting such reform practices, for they claim that no restructuring or reform can occur until member countries have paid their bills.

But what Clinton’s attitude reflects is a myth that the United Nations is an independent entity, which is not the case. The coalition can only be as good as the contributions from the nations of which it is composed.

The United States could be stern, yet more effective, by developing a payment plan linked to the satisfactory progress of reforms. Otherwise, the United States should only expect to have as large a say in policy as their willingness to contribute funding.