The representatives of 109 States Parties attended the Seventh Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention, (CWC) which took place in The Hague from 7 to 11 October 2002.
The Conference adopted the 2003 OPCW’s Programme of Work and Budget that has been established at EUR 68.6 million. The 2003 OPCW budget has been increased, for the first time in four years, by around ten percent, resulting in a significant increase in Verification and International Cooperation and Assistance programmes. This budget increase, together with two other decisions taken by the Conference to approve the use of the OPCW’s 2001 cash surplus and the use of the Working Capital Fund, serves to improve markedly the OPCW’s financial situation.
The Conference recognised the growing importance of the OPCW’s activities in the area of international co-operation and assistance (ICA) by increasing the provision in the Budget for ICA by 12.4% over the allocation in the approved budget for 2002. This increase provides, inter alia, for a doubling in the training capacity of the Associate Programme – the number of Associates in 2003 will be increased from 12 to 24 – increased amounts for protection and assistance, which is important in the context of the OPCW’s contribution to international efforts to combat terrorism, and increased support for the implementation of the Convention in its Member States.
The Conference adopted a number of other policy decisions in regard to the implementation of the Convention’s requirements for the destruction of chemical weapons, the conversion of the former chemical weapons production facilities, and some outstanding declaration issues, including:
*a decision to grant, in principle, an extension to the Russian Federation’s obligation to meet two of the Convention’s intermediate deadlines – for the destruction of one percent and of twenty percent of its Category 1 chemical weapons stockpiles. The Conference authorised the Executive Council to establish a specific date for the first deadline (1%) at its next session in December 2002, and to submit its recommendation for the second deadline (20%) to the Conference for adoption at its Eighth regular Session in October 2003. The Conference also established detailed reporting requirements on the status of the Russian chemical weapons destruction programme to be assumed by the Russian Federation, the Chairman of the Executive Council, and by the Director-General, to facilitate future consideration of these issues. The Conference also renewed its appeal to those States Parties in a position to do so, to provide assistance to support the efforts of the Russian Federation in implementation of the programme of chemical weapons destruction;
*a decision to grant an extension to another State Party’s obligation to meet the Convention’s timeline of April 2003 for the destruction of 20% of its chemical weapons stockpile;
*the adoption of requests for the conversion of nine former chemical weapons production facilities, at Volgograd and Novocheboksarsk in the Russian Federation, to peaceful purposes;
*a 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.
Reflecting a growing concern among Member States about the projected significant increase in the verification workload over the next several years, the Conference requested the Director-General to:
*submit to the Executive Council in March 2003 proposals for more substantial use of monitoring equipment at chemical weapons storage facilities (CWSF) and chemical weapons destruction facilities (CWDF) to be utilised already in 2003. (More extensive use of monitoring equipment is seen as an essential cost-saving tool in view of the projected doubling of the number of operating CWDFs in the next several years);
* consider proposals for the optimisation of verification activities during inspections of chemical weapons related and industrial facilities, including the intensity of inspections, sizes of inspection teams, and other related issues.
The Conference elected 21 new members to the 41-member Executive Council, for a two-year term which will commence on 12 May 2003.
The Conference agreed that the First Review Conference of the Chemical Weapons Convention will be held in The Hague from 28 April – 9 May 2003. This conference is being convened especially to review the implementation of the Convention since its entry into force on 29 April 1997.
The next regular session of the Conference, the Eighth Session, will be convened from 20 – 24 October 2003.
Note: Documents of the Conference will be shortly posted on the OPCW website: at www.opcw.org.
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