|
OPCW | Conference of the States Parties | ||
| Seventh Session | C-7/CoW.1 | |||
| 7 – 11 October 2002 | 11 October 2002 | |||
| Original: ENGLISH | ||||
| Unofficial electronic version | ||||
Report of the Committee of the Whole
1.
The Committee of the Whole met for its first, second, third, fourth, and fifth
meetings on 8, 9, 10, and 11 October 2002, under the chairmanship of
Ambassador Marc Vogelaar of the Netherlands.
2. The committee considered the following items from the agenda of the Conference of the States Parties (hereinafter the “Conference”), referred to it by the Conference:
AGENDA ITEM ELEVEN – Report of the Executive Council on the performance of its activities:
(e) List of approved equipment and technical specifications of approved equipment;
AGENDA ITEM THIRTEEN - Programme and budget of the Organisation, submitted by the Executive Council for the ensuing financial period, and all items pertaining to this budget, as well as other budgetary matters; and
AGENDA ITEM FOURTEEN - Scale of assessments to be paid by States Parties.
3. With regard to Agenda Item Eleven, the “Report of the Executive Council on the performance of its activities: (e) List of approved equipment and technical specifications of approved equipment”, the committee recommended that the Conference approve the draft decision on procedures for updating the list of approved equipment as contained in C-7/DEC/CRP.20/Rev.1 dated 11 October 2002.
The committee also considered the draft decision on procedures for revising technical specifications for approved equipment as contained in EC‑28/DEC/CRP.4, dated 15 February 2002.
Agreement was reached on operative paragraphs 1 and 2 of this draft decision, pending satisfactory agreement on operative paragraph 3. In respect to operative paragraph 3, there was an agreement on fundamental principles: that States Parties should have an opportunity to review and comment on the proposed technical specifications and that the Convention mandated role of the Executive Council in decision-making process must be fully respected. Efforts should continue to find precise language for operative paragraph 3, by reflecting these principles.
The committee requested that the Conference forward the draft decision as contained in EC‑28/DEC/CRP.4, dated 15 February 2002 to the Executive Council with a view to having it approved and provisionally applied. The decision to be adopted by the Executive Council shall be submitted to the Eighth Session of the Conference for a final consideration and approval.
4. With regard to Agenda Item Thirteen, the “Programme and budget of the Organisation, submitted by the Executive Council for the ensuing financial period, and all items pertaining to this budget, as well as other budgetary matters”, the committee considered and recommended that the Conference:
(a) approve the draft decision on the programme and budget as contained in C-7/DEC/CRP.24, dated 11 October 2002;
(b) recognise that, in accordance with the requirements of the Convention, essential operational activities are to increase significantly in the coming years, and affirm a readiness to ensure the availability of resources adequate to the full attainment by the Organisation of the objectives and purposes of the Convention. The Conference also considered that, in light of the prospective operational tasks, focused efforts to develop and implement more cost-effective procedures and more transparent methods are needed;
(c) include the following language on international cooperation and assistance in the report of the Conference of its Seventh Session:
“(i) The Conference decided that additional funds in the amount of EUR 450,000 will be made available to international cooperation and assistance programmes from the following sources:
· EUR 114,000, originally intended for replenishing the special account; and
· up to EUR 336,000, to be acquired through management of the programme and administrative adjustments as appropriate;
(ii) The Conference decided that the programmes to be funded through this mechanism are those contained in Table … of the draft OPCW Programme and Budget for 2003, and that they should be implemented as the funds become available;
(iii) The Conference also considered that, once funds are acquired and earmarked for international cooperation and assistance programmes, they should remain dedicated for the implementation of these programmes, and should not be redirected to other needs; and
(iv) The Conference requested the Director-General to report on a regular basis to the Executive Council on the implementation of this decision and to provide details on each activity in due course.”
(d) include the following language on Article IV and V implementation in the report of the Conference on its Seventh Session:
“(i) The Conference requested the Director-General to present to the Executive Council, at its Thirty-Second Session, proposals on more substantial use of monitoring equipment at chemical weapons storage and destruction facilities in the course of verification activities under Articles IV and V of the Convention, to be implemented within the framework of the OPCW programme and budget for the year 2003;
(ii) The Conference also requested the Director-General to consider proposals on optimisation of the verification activities under Articles IV and V of the Convention, relating to the frequency of inspections, number of inspectors in the inspection teams, and other related issues, and to present recommendations to the Executive Council, at its Thirty-Second Session, to be reflected in the draft OPCW programme and budget for the year 2004.”
(e) include the following language on Article VI implementation in the Report of the Conference at its Seventh Session:
“The Conference also took note of the expressed desirability to further optimise and to increase the efficiency of verification activities under Article VI, in particular in relation to the duration of inspections, the number of inspectors for each inspection and other related issues;
(f) include the following language on the Working Capital Fund in the draft decision on the programme and budget:
“(i) The Conference decided that all transfers of funds from the Working Capital Fund for the purpose of financing budgetary appropriations in the years 2002 and 2003 shall, as an exceptional measure, be reimbursed to the Fund as soon as feasible, but not later than the end of the financial periods of 2003 and 2004, respectively; and
(ii) The Conference requested the Director-General to report to the Eighth Session of the Conference of the States Parties, through the Executive Council, on details concerning transfers from and replenishments to the Working Capital Fund.”
(g) adopt the draft decision on withholding the distribution of the prospective cash surplus for 2001, as contained in C-7/DEC/CRP.22, dated 11 October 2002; and
(h) note the Draft OPCW Medium-Term Plan for the Period 2004 - 2006, as contained in document EC-29/CRP.2 dated 18 June 2002.
“(i) The delegation of Argentina has informed the Conference of the States Parties at its Seventh Session that the Committee on Contributions of the General Assembly of the United Nations, during its Sixty-Second Session, recommended “that the General Assembly fix a rate of assessment for Argentina of 0.969 per cent in 2003 as an ad hoc adjustment”. This recommendation will be further considered and decided upon by the General Assembly in its present session. In the event that a decision of the General Assembly results in a reduction of Argentina’s assessed UN contribution, this delegation to the OPCW considers that this fact should accordingly be reflected in the 2003 scale of Argentina’s assessed contribution to the OPCW. Therefore, the delegation of Argentina expressed its reservation on the scale of its assessments approved by the Conference; and
(ii) The Conference noted the observation of the delegation of Brazil concerning the methodology used in the calculation of the assessments.”