Thirtieth Session of the Executive Council Concludes

The Executive Council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons held its Thirtieth Session from 10 to 13 September 2002 in The Hague, under the chairmanship of Ambassador Lionel Fernando of Sri Lanka.

In his first address to the Council, the Director-General, Mr Rogelio Pfirter, stressed the need for “re-establishment of a sense of purpose within the Organisation, and the re?creation of an atmosphere of confidence and cooperation between the Secretariat and Member States”. The Director-General also informed the Council that the Secretariat “will be carrying out the programme of inspections from now until the end of the year, as originally planned.”

This session marked significant progress with the adoption by the Council of a record number of decisions on essential matters, some of which had remained on the Council’s agenda for a long time. The Council adopted two combined plans for destruction and verification of chemical weapons production facilities in the Russian Federation, as well as seven facility agreements (five for chemical weapons destruction facilities in the United States of America and two for Schedule 1 facilities – one in Yugoslavia and another in South Africa), and recommended to the Conference of the States Parties the adoption of five conversion requests for chemical weapons production facilities in the Russian Federation, as well as of the agreed detailed plan for the verification of destruction of chemical weapons at Unit 1 of the Gorny chemical weapons destruction facility in the Russian Federation. The Council also adopted an important decision on guidelines for declarations of aggregate national data for the production, consumption, import and export of Schedule 2 chemicals and for import and export of Schedule 3 chemicals, which would contribute to the consistent application of the Convention’s provisions in all States Parties.

Considerable time was devoted to the OPCW’s 2003 programme of work and budget. While there was a growing convergence of views on the need for a significant increase in the size of the OPCW’s budget for next year, final decisions could not be taken. The Council decided to return to this urgent matter at its next meeting scheduled for 3 October with a view to recommending the draft budget to the Conference of the States Parties for adoption.

The Council reviewed the Director-General’s report on national implementation measures and expressed concern that only 47% of States Parties had fulfilled their obligation under the Convention to inform the Organisation of their implementing measures. The Council urged those States Parties which have not yet done so to fulfil that obligation, and requested the Secretariat, within existing resources, to continue contacting such States Parties as a matter of urgency.

Also during its Thirtieth Session, the Foreign Minister of El Salvador, H.E. Ms Maria Eugenia Brizuela de Avila, addressed the Council on the occasion of her official visit to the OPCW.

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Categories: Executive Council