JM 99/5





JOINT MEETING OF THE EIGHTY-SECOND SESSION OF THE PROGRAMME COMMITTEE AND THE NINETY-THIRD SESSION OF THE FINANCE COMMITTEE

Rome, 15 September 1999

POSSIBLE REFORM OF THE GENERAL DEBATE AT CONFERENCE

1. The Conference at its 30th Session in November 1999 will consider several Amendments to the General Rules of the Organization and other measures proposed by the Council at its 116th Session in June 1999 as a result of its Review of the Methods of Work of the Conference. It will be recalled that this issue has been under consideration by the Joint Meeting since 1998, pursuant to the request made by the post-Conference Council in 1997 (114th Council Session).

2. The only outstanding item in the context of this Review is the possible reform of the General Debate (country statements) on which no consensus has yet emerged. In November 1998 the Council at its 115th Session considered three options: a) holding the session in two stages; b) setting aside one or two days for the discussion of a specific subject or subjects; c) selecting a few topics to be addressed by Ministers at separate but simultaneous meetings. While agreeing on the desirability of increasing interaction among Ministers, none of these options were adopted by the Council.

3. The Council reviewed this matter again in June 1999 in the light of a Secretariat paper on the implications of scheduling separate but simultaneous meetings at which Ministers could address selected topics (see CL 116/INF/5, copy attached). However, the Council felt that it could not agree on the arrangements to schedule a separate meeting that would allow for more interaction among Ministers and requested the Joint Meeting to review the matter again. The Council recognized that the results of such review could not be implemented at the 30th Session of the Conference in November 1999.

4. In view of this situation and considering that the Council session in November will be short and mainly focussed on the arrangements for the 30th Conference Session that will take place immediately after, the Joint Meeting may wish to postpone consideration of this item to one of its sessions next year so that its recommendations may be taken up by the Council at its November 2000 session.

5. In the meantime, members of the Programme and Finance Committees as well as Council members will also benefit from the actual experience of the general debate and the attendance of Ministers at the Conference session next November.