United Nations Economic Commission for Europe  The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) is one of the five regional commissions under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. It was established in order to promote economic cooperation and integrations among its Member States. The Commission is composed of 56 Member States, most of which are based in Europe, as well as a few outside of Europe. Its transcontinental Eurasian and non-European Member States include: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Canada, Georgia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, the United States of America and Uzbekistan. The Commission was established by the Economic and Social Council on 28 March 1947 in order to "Initiate and participate in measures for facilitating concerted action for the economic reconstruction of Europe," as well as to "maintain and strengthen the economic relations of the European countries, both among themselves and with other countries of the world." It was established at the request of the United Nations General Assembly who called on the Economic and Social Council to create the Commission, as well as the Commission for Asia and the Far East, in order to "give effective aid to countries devastated by war." As the Commission was established towards the beginning of the Cold War, it faced difficulties in achieving its mandate of economic reconstruction of Europe due to the Iron Curtain. The work of the Commission had to concern itself only with questions that were of common interest to East and West, as to not cause confrontation. However, since the fall of the Soviet Union, the United Nation's economic commissions have been expanding their activities in the former Soviet republics. The following are the member states of the commission, along with their date of admission:  This Committee promotes a policy, financial and regulatory environment conducive to economic growth, innovative development and higher competitiveness in the UNECE region, focusing mainly on countries with economies in transition. Its main areas of work are innovation and competitiveness policies, intellectual property, financing innovative development, entrepreneurship and enterprise development, and public-private partnerships. UNECE's concern with problems of the environment dates back at least to 1971, when the group of Senior Advisors to the UNECE governments on environmental issues was created which led to the establishment of the Committee on Environmental Policy, which now meets annually. The Committee provides collective policy direction in the area of environment and sustainable development, prepares ministerial meetings, develops international environmental law and supports international initiatives in the region. CEP works to support countries to enhance their environmental governance and transboundary cooperation as well as strengthen implementation of the UNECE regional environmental commitments and advance sustainable development in the region.