CHAIRMAN: We will now take up item 3, the nomination of the Chairman of the Conference and the Chairmen of the Commissions of the Conference and the Rapporteur of the Plenary to Commission I, that is document C 79/12-Rev.2. Yesterday the Secretary-General explained the changes in the document which has been reprinted but unfortunately not all the languages are ready but those that are ready are being circulated now and the other languages will be in your hands as soon as possible.
You remember that at our last session in June the private meeting held with the Heads of delegations indicated the people who should occupy some of the offices at the next Conference. As Chairman of the Conference it was agreed to nominate His Excellency Mr. Lamo de Espinosa, Minister of Agriculture for Spain. In accordance with the practice of the Organization the Government of Spain was consulted and gave their consent for Mr. Lamo de Espinosa to occupy the post of Chairman of the Conference. I therefore think that it is a pleasure for all of us to confirm that Mr. Lamo de Espinosa the Minister of Agriculture for Spain will be the Chairman of the next Conference.
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J. MIRANDA (Observador por España): Muchas gracias Sr. Presidente. Permítame unas breves palabras para agradecerle y felicitarle en nombre de mi delegación por la magnífica forma en que, como ya es habitual, dirige estos debates.
Asimismo quisiera felicitar a los miembros de la Mesa que tan eficazmente le acompañan.
En nombre de mi país, Reino de España, quiere mi delegación agradecer muy cordialmente a este Consejo la designación como candidato a la Presidencia del vigésimo período de sesiones de la Conferencia del Ministro de Agricultura español, Jaime Lamo de Espinosa. Puedo asegurarles que el Sr. Lamo de Espinosa se siente muy honrado con esta designación y me pidió transmitir a este Consejo que todo su empeño y voluntad estarán dedicados a conseguir el éxito que todos deseamos para la Conferencia de la FAO.
Gracias distinguidos delegados, muchas gracias Sr. Presidente.
CHAIRMAN: The next item is Chairman of Commission I. The Council proposed His Excellency Mohamed Sedki Zehni of Libya. The Government of the Socialist People's Republic of Libya subsequently gave its consent and I therefore assume that the Council would agree that Mr. Zehni be confirmed as Chairman of Commission I of the Conference. The proposal is before you.
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The next is Chairman of Commission II. We propose Dr. Swaminathan of India. The Government of India has given its consent and Dr. Swaminathan is proposed as Chairman of Commission II of the Conference.
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The next is the Chairman for Commission III. Consultations have been successfully concluded since June and I can now propose to the Council that Dr. H. Mauria of Finland be the Chairman of Commission III. If the Council agrees then the nomination of Mr. Mauria would be put up to the Conference.
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CHAIRMAN: We also conducted consultation regarding the offices of the Rapporteur of the Plenary to Commission I. As a result of these consultations I can propose to Council that Mr. Horatio Mends Permanent Representative of Ghana to FAO, be nominated as the Rapporteur of the Plenary to Commission I.
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It was so decided
Il en est ainsi décidé
Así se acuerda
CHAIRMAN: I would ask you to note the proposals we are about to make to you after having consulted numerous members of the Council and all the governments concerned. I propose to you that the following eleven countries be members of the Nominations Committee: Angola, Botswana, the Federal Republic of Germany, Greece, Iraq, Kuwait, New Zealand, Peru, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Uruguay. I ask the Council members whether you agree that these countries should make up the Nominations Comittee. If there are no objections then the eleven countries will form the Nominations Committee.
It was so decided
Il en est ainsi decide
Así se acuerda
Then we can go on to the next item, which is the nomination of the Chairman of the informal meeting of Observers of Non-Governmental Organizations. I will ask the Secretary-General to say something on this subject.
LE SECRETAIRE GENERAL: Dans le document que je viens de vous faire distribuer, vous pouvez lire que, suivant l'usage, le Conseil désigne le Président de la réunion officieuse des observateurs des organisations non gouvernementales qui participent à nos travaux. C'est en effet la coutume que le Conseil désigne le Président qui doit diriger les discussions des organisations non gouvernementales limitées au cadre des activités de 1 organisation et aux points de l'ordre du jour de la Conférence. C'est la raison pour laquelle le Directeur général a fait la proposition contenue dans ce document C 76/INF/5.
CHAIRMAN: The proposal is that Professor V. Harnaj, Romania, President of the International Federation of Beekeepers Association, should be the Chairman of the informal meeting. If there are no objections, then Professor Harnaj is confirmed as the nomination for that post.
It was so decided
Il en est ainsi décidé
Asi se acuerda
It may perhaps be useful at this stage to give some explanations regarding what will happen from tomorrow on when the Nominations Committee will meet, so that all of the members of the Council may be fully informed.
The Nominations Committee will meet at a time to be announced later by the Secretary-General. It will deal with the following: the three Vice-Chairmen of the Conference and the seven countries which will form part of the General Committee of the Conference. It will be remembered that the General Committee, a very important body, consists of eleven countries, including the Chairman of the Conference and the three Vice-Chairmen, who are members of the General Committee in their personal capacity. The Chairman of the Conference chairs the General Committee. In addition to these officers the General Committee consists of seven countries who can nominate the representative that they wish. This total number of eleven constitutes the General Committee, whose composition has to be proposed by the Nominations Committee to the Conference. The Nominations Committee will also propose to the Conference the Credentials Committee, which will consist of nine members. The General Committee and the Credentials Committee will be the only committees with which the Nominations Committee will concern itself.
Once the General Committee of the Conference has been elected and meets, the General Committee in accordance with the legal provisions in force will propose the Vice-Chairmen of the Commissions of the Conference.
Within the total structure of the Conference I think that the only body not yet covered is the Resolutions Committee. I understand that the General Committee is first to ask the Conference to give its views on the recommendations that this Council made last June regarding the composition of the Resolutions Committee. You will remember that at the 1975 Conference a change was made in the system that had prevailed hitherto and it was agreed that the Resolutions Committee should be composed of seven countries, one for each of the FAO regions. This time the Council has made the same recommendation to the Conference. Once the Conference has decided to accept this recommendation of the Council, the General Committee will propose seven countries who will constitute the Resolutions Committee of the Conference.
A.Y. BUKHARI (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) (Interpretation from Arabic): With regard to the General Committee, I have not completely understood your explanation to us when you announced that the General Committee would be made up of seven members representing seven countries. Does that mean that the three Vice-Chairmen of the Conference and the Chairman of the Conference will also be considered as representatives of their countries and is the distribution in regard to the Resolutions Committee which will be made up of seven members representing the seven regions of FAO or will they be representing seven countries? Could I have clarification on this, please?
CHAIRMAN: Yes. There are seven regions of FAO and there will be one country from each region, and the country agreed to by the region in consultations will provide the names. Then we have the Chairman and the three Vice-Chairmen who are by personal right, not by country. They do not represent their countries. So we have eleven. Each country is from a region. Is that clear?
A.Y. BUKHARI (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) (Interpretation from Arabic): Yes, thank you. The point has been clarified for me now. But I wonder if this procedure has always been followed previously by the Conference. Was this the procedure at the last conference? If I recall correctly the members of the General Committee were elected on the basis of the principle that two countries per region would represent each region, and the three Vice-Chairmen and the Chairman, their representation was coming from a given region, they were not elected on a personal basis, at least as far as I recall. Is the procedure that you are suggesting to us a new procedure and if there is a difference from the old procedure could you explain the reasons for the change?
LE SECRETAIRE GENERAL: Je voudrais simplement donner lecture du passage pertinent du Règlement général. Il dit que la Conférence constitue son Bureau qui comprend le président et les vice-présidents de la Conférence et sept Etats Membres élus par la Conférence elle-même. Il s'agit donc bien de sept Etats Membres. Mais comment sont élus ces Etats Membres? Il me semble que l'on tient compte des compositions passées pour procéder à une sorte de rotation qui permette à chaque pays d'occuper ces fonctions, et ces informations sont mises à la disposition du Comité général lorsqu'il est appelé à examiner cet aspect de son travail, et c'est sur la base de ces informations qu'il propose les pays dont il lui semble que c'est le tour de participer au Comité général.
La procédure donc n'a pas changé, je crois, et quand le Comité général se réunira c'est ainsi qu'il procédera pour l'élection de ceux qui doivent faire partie de son Comité, en plus des vice-présidents.
CHAIRMAN: Delegate of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is it fairly clear now?
A.Y. BUKHARI (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) (Interpretation from Arabic): Thank you for giving me the floor once again. I hope that the question will also be clear for the Nominations Committee. If we look at the document which related to the election during the last session of the Conference we will see that all of the members of the General Committee were elected on the basis of regional representation. By this I mean that even the Vice-Chairmen were elected as well as the Chairman on the basis of regional representation. As you know, the General Committee of the Conference is one of the most important bodies. We would like our region, the Near East, to be represented by two members. On the basis of what I have seen the Near East will only be represented in the General Committee, and even in the Conference and the Council in our opinion our region is not well represented. I would like this to be explained clearly to the Nominations Committee and for it to be taken into consideration. I have already seen the document which relates to the last Conference session and I have noted that the members of the General Committee were elected on the basis of geographical representation and there were two representatives for each geographical region. In any case we will support this idea and ask for the Near East to have two representatives on the General Committee.
CHAIRMAN: The remarks you have made have been taken and I am sure that the Nominations Committee will take them into account.
C. BATAULT (FRANCE): Puisque c'est une question qui est posée, je voudrais simplement indiquer que, en ce qui me concerne, j'ai une très grande expérience du système des Nations Unies, puisque je m'en occupe depuis 1952. Je n'ai jamais vu que dans les commissions les présidents et les vice-présidents qui sont élus en tant que personnalités soient considérés comme représentants d'une région précise.
CHAIRMAN: Of course, this is taken care of by our own Constitution, also, so I do not think there is any more problem on that.
Now we go on to the next item, which is item 19, Date and Place of 77th Session of the Council, and I would like to give the floor to the Secretary-General.
LE SECRETAIRE GENERAL: Si le Conseil est d'accord, il pourrait se réunir le lendemain de la clôture de la Conférence, c'est-à-dire le 30 novembre. Mais il y a aussi une probabilité qui pourrait très bien se réaliser, si la Conférence arrive à terminer ses travaux le 29 en fin de matinée, et si le Conseil est d'accord, il pourrait se réunir dans 1'après midi pour terminer son ordre du jour, et ainsi tous les travaux seraient terminés dans la même journée. Mais cela est une probabilité.
Je vous fais donc les deux propositions: le Conseil se réunirait le 29 dans l'après midi, pour le cas où les travaux de la Conférence seraient terminés, ou le 30, comme initialement prévu, si la Conférence devait aller jusqu'à la fin de 1'après midi.
CHAIRMAN: We now have two proposals: one is that if the Conference terminates early, on 29 November, then the Council should meet in the afternoon, start work in the afternoon. If we do not finish, then we go on and finish during the morning of 30 November, which will then leave delegates free in the afternoon to do whatever they wish to do. Otherwise, if the Conference goes on the whole day on 29 November, then we will meet as scheduled originally, which was 30 November, the whole day.
Can we leave these two options to the Secretariat to make tentative arrangements on those lines? If I see no objections, then the Secretariat will arrange along these lines and see what we can do.
This concludes our formal agenda.
The meeting rose at 10.20 hours
La séance est levée à 10 h 20
Se levanta la sesión a las 10.20 horas
