84. The Commission had before it document ALINORM 85/25 containing a request from Sweden for clarification of the role of observers at Codex meetings. The delegation of Sweden requested that the matter be discussed at the next session of the Codex Committee on General Principles. In referring to the document, the representative of the Legal Counsel of FAO recalled that the matter had been extensively discussed at the 32nd Session of the Executive Committee (paragraphs 12 and 13 of document ALINORM 85/4). He confirmed that, although from a strictly legal point of view, observers had no right to insist on having their views reflected in the report of the Commission, or - unless they were observers from countries - in the reports of subsidiary bodies, a much more flexible practice had, until now, been followed, whereby the views of participants from regional groupings of States have been reflected in the report of Codex meetings. He recalled that the Executive Committee had decided to recommend to the Commission that such practice be continued. Although the matter was entirely one of expediency on which the Commission had latitude to decide, the Commission felt that it would be useful if the various legal aspects related to that matter, could be restated in a document prepared by the Legal Counsels of FAO and WHO, for submission to the next session of the Codex Committee on General Principles. In the meantime, the Commission intended to follow present practice on this issue, as had been decided by the Executive Committee.
85. The Commission had before it document ALINORM 85/37. In introducing the document, the FAO Joint Secretary provided the Commission with the background to the proposal which had been detailed in document ALINORM 83/9. The representative of the Legal Counsel of FAO pointed out that Rule VI.3, as drafted, certainly permitted the countries in a region or a group of countries to take the initiative to elaborate a regional standard and to decide on its contents, but that this function was subject to the more general functions of the Commission as a whole, which was to decide whether such a regional iniative was compatible or not with its overall programme, its aims and purposes as listed under Article I of the Statutes, and, if not, to set aside the decision taken by the region or group of countries concerned. The proposal to amend Rule VI.3 in order to clearly give such power to the Commission was therefore unnecessary. The Commission decided that indeed Rule VI. 3 should receive the above interpretation and that therefore the issue raised in document ALINORM 85/37 could be set aside. The Commission regarded the matter as now closed.
