THIRTEENTH MEETING
TREIZIEME SEANCE
13^a SESION

(18 November 1987)

The Thirteenth Meeting was opened at 15.00 hours
Fred J. Eckert, Chairman of Commission II, presiding

La treizième séance est ouverte à 15 heures, sous la
présidence de Fred J. Eckert, Président de la Commission II

Se abre la 13^a sesión a las 15.00 horas, bajo la presidencia de
Fred J. Eckert, Presidente de la Comisión II

CHAIRMAN: The Chair would like to indulge in some informality. Technically we do not yet have a quorum although there are a number of people here. We announced before our recess for lunch that if we started at 2.30 we might be able to continue item 15 before us and then interrupt that about three o'clock, when we anticipated having the Report. We also advised that it would not be prudent to proceed with discussion of the Report without members having had the opportunity to rend it. Obviously I think there is a general consensus that the Report item has higher priority, as a more critical issue, than the other item and that we would try to have discussion for a period of time and then adjourn and have the reading of the Report.

I understand that we have now acquired a quorum, but what we would like to do now is to take this opportunity, while members are assembling, to distribute the Report. Then we could recess for a period of time, allow member countries the opportunity of reading the Report and consulting with their delegations about it; and then come back with a quorum, please, in perhaps about half an hour. The Chair will act in accordance with your wishes but I would venture to say that perhaps we should allow half an hour. Those countries which have not yet started to speak on item 15 and are still considering, will obviously be reading while we are proceeding, and doing two things at once.

Then when we have finished with this item we can take up the Report, try to proceed with orderly discussion on that, and then at the end of the proceedings today we will not be late this evening. The reason is because we will try to provide an opportunity for the Contact Group to meet at the end of our discussions today and start their discussions, which are very important to the whole success of this endeavour. I sense that this is a generally accepted method of proceeding, and at this point the Chair will exercise its prerogative of declaring a recess of one half-hour.

A valuable and instructive suggestion has just been received from the delegate of France. He has pointed out I stated that we would come back to the item before us and then try to take up the Report, finish with the Report and then go into the Contact Group. He has suggested to me that with the member of speakers we have before us it might be better to suspend our meeting on the item before us, read the Report, go to the issue for which we have a clear deadline, take that up this afternoon, have the Contact Group meet and then tomorrow we will convene on this item. The Chair feels that is a very constructive and useful suggestion and would like to adopt it. Therefore when we come back we will not do what I earlier suggested but we will do what has been suggested by France. We will proceed immediately with the Report and use all our time this afternoon for that purpose.

The meeting was suspended from 15.10 to 15.45 hours.
La séance est suspendue de 15 h 10 à 15 h 45.
Se suspende la sesión de las 15.10 a las 15.45 horas.